


The Prisoner's Dilemma

by mugu



Category: Naruto
Genre: Academy Era, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Chess Metaphors, Cipher codes, Conspiracy, Eldritch Abomination, Emotional Manipulation, Game Theory, Genjutsu, Investigations, Lies, Meta, Mind Manipulation, Other, Past Abuse, Rationnal characters, Twisting tropes, Unhealthy Relationships, Unstable seal, War
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-16
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-15 16:04:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 65,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13034622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mugu/pseuds/mugu
Summary: After being sealed again, the Fox faced two major problems: humans were strong enough to enslave it and even if it managed to get out, the humans had the means to control it. If going out was not an option, which options had it left? Thinking outside the box is sometimes necessary, but what to do when you are only faced with bad choices? AU because of unstable Naruto's seal





	1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** The story is designed to make you think twice about what the characters say and about the way they act. Things are not always what they seem to be. The truths are more than often hidden by lies in guise of truths, and by truths in guise of lies. Clues are given, and the whole picture makes sense only when you have all the elements in your possession.

Translation of the above sentences: Do not feel disgusted by the overwhelming fannon elements or the apparently cliché scenes, because they are part of the plot. The story is built based on YOUR meta knowledge of the universe, and things are not as simple as they seem.

 

* * *

**Prologue**

* * *

_Between the lines of the white mask glints keen blue eyes observing..._

_(A woman corpse falls)_

_... the whirlpool drawn on the belly of an unconscious kid._

* * *

**X**

* * *

The Fox contemplated its situation in a calm manner that was uncharacteristic of it.

Last time it had managed to break free, it had been forced into a rampage by a human with unrealistic power. And of course, as a result, it had been imprisoned again. This was the third time in a century already.

The hate it had born toward humans had been inhuman. The hate it had born toward Uchiha was superior to everything it ever felt. It had been on the verge of insanity. It had gripped its cage with its claws, spitting, cursing its fate.

It had spent as a result long, very long time shouting that it would eventually vanquish all humans on the Earth.

But at the end, even Kurama had grown bored of this pointless situation.

So it finally admitted that its behavior had just been childish, as it would not bring it any freedom or power. Worse, it was meaningless. There were no witnesses to listen to its complaints.

Thus, Kurama started to think. The Fox observed its surroundings. It realized it was in a sewer; or rather, the representation of its host's inner world looked like that. It had no idea how much time elapsed since it had been imprisoned. One week, one month, one year maybe? How could it know?

So it focused on its senses. It opened its eyes, watched a street. It listened to its environment, humans shouting behind him. It took in a deep breath, the scent of smoke and ash from torches stinging its sensitive nose. It felt the rough ground under its feet. It tasted the despair, the anger, the sadness.

Kurama had enough of this, all of those painful feelings. It wanted to go out and destroy this village that made it enslaved. It wanted to kill the human that dared control it. But Kurama knew the moment it escaped its cage, it would be imprisoned in the exact same way as previously — no maybe even worse, because at least for now, it had a link to the outside. A feeble link, but a link yet.

If it came to this point, if the Fox should live its life as the prisoner of this boy, this one should be strong; strong enough to hold his ground against its enemies. It would train the boy, in the manner of sharpening a weapon. The boy would be its tool to enact its plan. But it also knew the boy would obey to it only if he saw it as his closest friend. So it would wait the good moment, when the child's mind would be particularly weakened to listen to its voice.

Kurama grinned.

The Fox would make the boy its own.

* * *

Naruto was not stupid. He wanted people to think he was stupid so they would feel pity for him. However, at best, what he received was their indifference.

The abuse he was victim to every day was more of a psychological kind. He felt oppressed, lonely. People went out of their away to ignore him whenever he came close. The shops refused to sell groceries to him, so he often spent his nights hungry. The other children also avoided him, even if in their eyes, he understood that they themselves didn't know why; no doubt because of their parents.

Seldomly, one of his neighbors would knock on the door. Only once, he opened it to received a fist on his eye, that became swollen the rest of the night. He remembered the terrific laugh, the sadistic laugh followed by this act of violence toward him. Now, he never opened his door to anyone at night. They would knock at his window but he knew he was safe inside of his flat. He was like a rabbit in its cage, harmless and scared the big bad wolf would come for him and bite off his head. The nights of the Festival were the worst; the night of his birthday, but also the night he feared the most. Because it was the only moment  _where_  they would try to hunt him.

_Toc. Toc. Toc. Toc. Toc. Toc._

This repetitive sound echoed throughout the small home, knowing no end. He cried on his couch, under his blanket, crying for someone to free him from his fate. They would not dare, they never dared to force...

_Toc. Toc. Toc. Toc. Toc. Toc._

Why was he alone? Why had his parents abandoned him? Was he so ugly that even his own parents rejected him?

_Toc. Toc. Toc. Squash._

And then, there were no sounds.

Naruto opened his eyes wide. He was scared, scared and scared and scared and scared. Because. They. Were. Inside.

"Tonight, we will kill you, demon spawn!" he heard them shout from the living room. He got up, tried to dress up with pants and went toward the windows. By luck, they would not circle him from two sides. Before he passed through the small opening, he saw his shadow reverberating on the floor and saw nine long curved black lines emerging from it, but he dismissed it as he fled.

He jumped through the second floor and landed on ground. His knees hurt him horribly but he had to run, to flee.

The night of the Hunt had begun.

This time, solely, Naruto found himself at a dead end. Even if he knew all the streets by heart, scared as he was, he made a mistake, took a wrong turn. And they were just before him.

* * *

The time had come. The fruit was ripe. The timing was perfect. The demonic smile of the Fox stretched its whiskers, a grin showing its malice.

* * *

A punch in the gut, a kick on his face, a burn on his shoulder. His spine was like it had always been part of the ground beneath him. He cowered, putting his hands above his face, begging for his life.

* * *

The Fox laughed as it winced at the pain.

* * *

_Am I dead?_

* * *

" ** **No, you're not,**** " the Fox stated factually as the child retreated into his inner world.

Shadows were deep, but even with the dimmed light, Naruto could see the immense being in front of him. Behind a titanic cage, there was red fur, white teeth, nine tails as red eyes observing him, judging him.

"Is this Hell?" Naruto asked. Certainly, only Hell would await him, because he must have done some misdeeds in his life or past life to deserve such hate. But only a sinister laughter responded to his query.

" ** **If you consider your life to be a living Hell, well, it would be accurate,**** **wouldn't** ** **it?**** "

But the child did not like the mocking tone the demon took. If he had to torture him, at least he could do it in silence. He glared furiously at this monstrous, strange creature, whose breath fanned his face. The whole body of the Fox suddenly laid before the boy, tapping its tails in a monotone rhythm. Naruto closed his eyes, waiting for the suffering to come, but only a dreaded pause welcomed him. Was that another kind of torture? If wait could kill, Naruto would have already died.

" ** **So, what do you think about your fellows, child? Are they kind? Are they fair? Of course they are!**** " the Fox snorted. It hoped that its sarcasm would not be lost the kid, but this one was so traumatized by the previous events that he seemed unable to understand the joke. Even if Kurama knew its jokes were in bad taste sometimes.

"Please, don't punch me. Please, don't kick me. Please, don't hurt me," Naruto begged as he seemed to pray before the giant creature.

The Fox just yawned, and faced the opposite side.

" ** **When you stop spouting bullshit, will you dare wak**** ** **e**** ** **me up? I will take a short nap.**** "

Naruto waited on his knees, his eyes closed for five minutes, until he realized no pain would come to him. He stood up, relief and gratitude causing tears to spill from his eyes, a bright smile plastered on his face.

"Thank you... sir?" he hesitated how to address the beast. This one turned its giant eyes in front of him, eyes that were as big as he was.

" ** **Why would you thank me? I did nothing for you. When you called for help, I did nothing for you.**** "

"But... you are not ignoring me, nor hurting me," the boy whispered. The eyes of the Demon twinkled.

" ** **And why would I? I have no interest in hurting you, child. I am a known demon, but even humans seem to beat me in being evil. But now**** ** **that you're here**** ** **, shall we start introducing ourselves? My name is Kurama, and you child?"****

One of its claws reached the shirt of the young kid, who lifted his nose and declared proudly. "I am Naruto, nice to meet you."

" ** **Nice to meet you, child.**** " the Fox said in a smile.

"Can you stop calling me that? I just told you my name."

His boldness was only welcomed by an " ** **Oh,**** " from the Fox as its grin widened. " ** **Maybe when you grow older, I will call you something else, but for now, to me, you are but a child.**** " The Fox used its claw to tickle the boy, but noted it was not really suited to that as he almost put a hole into the young being. Naruto gasped in relief when he saw the claw retreating to the giant form. He saw the Fox lifting his finger before his eyes.

" ** **Hmm, maybe I should try to take another form... A form more suited to speak with a child.**** "

And then, the giant form brightened suddenly and exploded in a blinding light. Naruto jumped backward in surprise and almost fell if it it was not for a hand on his back preventing that. As he lifted his eyes in front of him, he saw a human head, a woman head, attached to a beautiful, naked figure, who measured at least twice his height. The eyes of the woman were red, slit in the middle, in the same manner of the fox. He then felt his head resting on a her opulent chest. He felt a warm handle ruffling his hair then his ears.

" ** **Do you like it, child? I heard young human males like to be in presence of their adult counterpart.**** " Her voice was still frightening and contrasted vividly with the rest of her alluring body. However, Naruto noted some mistake in the anatomy; one part of her jaw was too big, and she was missing one breast on her chest. The young boy pointed them and the missing parts were righted.

" ** **Haha, sorry child. It is my first time**** **taking** ** **this form, I am not still used to that**** ," she laughed crazily. Naruto deemed to interrupt.

"But... Your voice no longer fits with the rest." She arched her eyebrows.

" ** **Oh yes, I forgot about that also.**** Done." she finished, in a crystalline tone. She then hummed. "We may continue our conversation now that you are no longer scared of me."

Her voice was delightful, alluring. Naruto loved to the song of her voice. He felt like...

"Can I call you Onee-sama?" The woman looked at him, grinning like crazy. She lifted one hand, her nails started to look dangerously like claws.

"You may try, but I will not guarantee you escape unscathed from this, child." Despite the fact that she told him he would no longer be scared, he weirdly found her new form more... intimidating. "But you can shorten my name if you wish, and call me Kura for all I care. My old brethren used to call me that... sometimes." Her red eyes seemed to be lost, somewhere in the air.

"Kura—" she put a finger on his mouth.

"But, that will be the story of another time. You should wake up."

"Wh-what-?" But when his eyes opened, he realized he was alone again, still on the street. The dawn rose, and the sun illuminated the horizon.

He looked at torso, but saw no wounds. Felt as if he slept for a long time. It was as if... everything had just been a dream.

And yet, in a corner of his mind, a voice chuckled. " _ _Do you like my present, child?__ "

"What, how?"

He answered vocally but the voice replied with an annoyed tone: " _ _Do not speak to yourself.__ _ _T__ _ _hinking is enough as I can listen to you, child.__ "

He sighed.  _Right. What time it is?_

" _ _Congratulations, child, you survived the Night, but you are still late for the Academy. People may ask questions. Hurry."__

_"_ Damn, I forgot about that!" the eight-year-old exclaimed as he ran toward the main street.

Behind him, laid the blooded bodies of his previous aggressors, scattered on the floor.

The Fox grinned. Humans were truly fascinating.


	2. Lying is a necessary skill, pt 1

There was a Fox, that was in a box,

Where it howled its rage, the day of the marriage,

As it was forced to participate, when the bells rang its fate,

In its seal it would remained, and wait there until its hopes died.

The Fox thus swore, that it would eventually tore the family,

But moment of the accident, being controlled had been its predicament,

As the red-eyed freak who was hidden, had searched it indeed in its den,

By reaching its consuming power, the leach called upon his followers,

As his hour of glory come, his minions answered to his summons,

As a response the king arrived, but realized too late his family was no longer protected!

Slaying every freaks on his way, praying to God he would get straight into the place,

But instead was put in astray, because the Demon had been liberated!

So the voice of the Blond roared, as his son was given to him by a maid,

That his sacrifice would not be vain, and shouted with conviction to the rain,

That the boy would be their hero, when he conjured like a maestro,

The chains that linked the beast, to put it to an internal rest.

The infant, who lost both his mother and father this day

And who from birth, was destined to see his childhood fly away,

Tried to keep their hatred of his folks at bay, but could not because he was too afraid!

So the wolves came, in the devastated plain, shouting his name again,

seeking the blood in his veins, and to stab their blade into his brain,

For the demon to be slain, but instead only lit a flame

in the village of golden, where the Dragon awakened!

As they dared provoking his wrath, it turned them as a result into a blood bath,

All of this unbeknownst to the boy, who was not aware that it had all been a ploy,

For him to fall into a web of complexities, to make him mistake his allies for his enemies,

Because the Fox in its den, had stopped waiting for him to put an end,

To all those painful years, by its very hands.

* * *

**X**

* * *

The Third leader of the Leaf waited for his report. It was already seven in the morning.

A man in a tiger mask opened the door. He brought a pile of papers and discarded it over another pile of papers. The old warrior who was sat at the desk read the first page of the file. He read  _Festival Night: 8 casualties_.

"Good job. You are dismissed, Tiger," the Hokage said as he casually flipped the pages of the document. Tiger nodded, and got out of the room.

Hiruzen took the pipe on his table and lit a flame. Smoking relieved him from the stress. He inhaled the scent of the leaves, as he discovered the whole affair. Of course, none of his men knew except the one delegated about this mission. This man was a secret among the secrets. Anonymity was the strongest protection he knew, even if sometimes, it was put against his own reputation. However, the most intelligent of his men would doubt that it was really unlikely that he would not do anything about the aggression of their secret weapon.

Hiruzen was known as the Professor, not only because of the amount of techniques he knew, but also because of his ability to master each and every one of them. Here went the same for his weapons. And this weapon in particular required peculiar treatment. He could not afford to let useless civilians get their hands on his tools. The inhabitants were all important, ninja or not, but some weighed more than other, and Hiruzen knew where his priorities were. And Naruto versus eight civilians, it was easy to deduce which was most important. His trusted henchman was trusted for a reason; he dealt with problems elegantly.

None would ever think that Naruto had been responsible for their deaths, as the boy was supposed to be in a different place at the moment of their deaths.

* * *

As he was running, Naruto realized the bystanders were looking at him more attentively than usual.

" _You should train your observation skills_ ," he suddenly heard a voice inside of him. He was so surprised that he stumbled and fell head-first to the ground. His inner voice sighed disappointingly.

_Sorry, I am still not used to you_ , the blond admitted sheepishly.

" _I hope it will not happen so often._ " the voice humphed. " _Now get up and get dressed, child._ "

He realized that he was almost naked, as all he was wearing was a torn up pair of pants and his underwear.

_Should I come back at home?_  he asked mentally.  _I have no clothes at school._

" _Which is closer. Academy or Home_?" Naruto already knew how it would end.  _Academy,_  he replied.

On this thought, he continued his shameful walk.

* * *

Iruka, one of the few member of the educational staff, was used to dealing with knuckleheads, and more particularly; blond knuckleheads.

He's already fifty minutes late. cringed the teacher, as he snapped the white chalk between his fingers.

Iruka cringed and snapped the chalk between his fingers. He's already fifty minutes late.

"STOP TALKING!", he shouted and threw the bisected piece of chalk at two particularity irksome students. At that moment, Naruto entered the classroom. The blond boy noted his teacher glaring at him. His gaze was like a thrown dagger.

Naruto wisely chose to close the door.

"NARUTO!" Iruka howled.

* * *

"Improper dressing, truancy, insubordination…"

Mizuki enumerated. He tapped his finger on his front-head in thought. "I must say you have a knack for bending the rules, boy."

Naruto was on his knees. They gave him a blanket to make him less an eye sore. The blond seemed to pout.

"It's not my fault. I was visited last night by big wolves. They tried to kidnap me."

Mizuki sighed. "Listen to me, Naruto. Your story would have amused me if you were only late, but Iruka brought you to me so I'm going to have to punish you. Do you know what it means?"

Naruto whitened. If every student in the Academy knew that Iruka was easily irritable, but inoffensive in fact, Mizuki was known to be mean when he started to be angry at you. And Mizuki being angry at you was not something a student would proclaim from the house-tops.

_Can you help me?_

He begged his inner voice, but no reply came.

"Yes, sir..." the boy grumbled. Mizuki then stood up and held a long wood stick on his hand.

"Your arms. Lift them up." The teacher ordered expressionlessly. Naruto did and then, Mizuki beat his arms five times. Blood dripped from arms after that. Naruto always found Mizuki to be professional in his punishments, in a sense, and he would never break a bone or strife a muscle, but it always hurt like hell after the session. Naruto whined a bit when Mizuki threw the stick away.

"I wonder why you still come here when you are called to my office everyday. I don't think someone would willingly enjoy pain."

"It is not my fault," Naruto cried. Mizuki smirked at him, the kind of smirk that would send anyone shivers down their spine. "Nor mine. But I must admit that it's weird that you've never considered any other options than to be a ninja."

Naruto could not stomach that. Since Grampa took him from the orphanage, he was defined to be a ninja. And he would not fail his Grampa.

"I cannot leave the Academy..." He knew that nobody would accept him as an apprentice anyways. He was already too old to learn anything else.

"If the decision was up to me, I would have had you expelled a long time ago, Naruto. It is neither good for you, or for us. And contrary to what you think, I do not enjoy inflicting pain on you. But the rules are the rules, and you won't last long on the battlefield if you do not obey to the rules. So, make me the promise Naruto, that you will not ever be called to my office again for this kind of punishment, understood?"

His eyes were stern. Naruto could only nod. He was not weak to authority, but Mizuki was something else entirely.

"Yes, I promise."

And then he proceeded to return at home, hoping he would not wake up late for tomorrow morning.

* * *

Naruto's dreams were rarely happy. Walking alone in a mist and chasing after shadows were the least scary. Worst was when he had to confront his parents and admit he was a bad boy.

This time, Naruto felt something scratching his ear, as if a fly came too close. He put a hand over his head and noted he made contact with something.

"Wake up," he heard a familiar voice whisper onto his ear.

He opened his eyes and saw he was inside a sewer. A rotted stench forced him to wake up quickly. He then realized there was a girl, just next to him, who contrasted in every sense with all the scene. She smelt good while the rest was horrid. She was like a flower, contrary to the ugly cement wall. The blond knew no better than to come closer to her.

"You are... Kura?" Naruto asked, right before her nose.

She nodded. She was different, younger. Her red hair only reached her shoulders, contrary to the previous day where they reached the end of her back. Her red eyes were curved, with yellowish taint, giving her an exotic aspect. She only wore a blacked wool sweater, who covered most of her body. Her chest was smaller, timid. Yet, somehow, her tame features made her very alluring.

She could have been his long lost twin.

"Yesterday, you needed something close to a mother, but tonight, I feel you may prefer to speak with a friend. So I considered it wise to take this form."

He was on the verge to crying.

"Can I hug you?" he gasped. She inclined her head shortly and lifted her arms wide. "Come, child." She patted his head on her shoulder.

Why was she so comfortable, gentle, nice to him when everybody else just considered him as a hindrance? He felt tired. Why was the only person he fell close to his imaginary friend? He hiccuped a bit, and took a sitting position.

"Thanks" he said. The girl only blinked. Her quietness disturbed him a bit. He expected her to be more... expressive.

Then she smiled.

"Have you calmed down, child?" He nodded. "Good, if you are not calm, we will not be able to progress. As I told you, my name is Kurama, and I will be staying her for some time, so we have to establish a more proper... relationship. Do you agree?" He nodded again. "Then firstly, I'd like to establish ground rules."

"Aaaaah not again!" shouted Naruto. But his little tantrum just make the girl Kurama frown her eyebrows.

"Sorry..." he said a little embarrassed.

"Good. If possible, if you would say nobody about me, the fact I am inside of you and stuff. I think you'd rather not give another reason for Mizuki to beat you to a pulp, right?" Naruto nodded frantically. "Not to anyone, not to anybody, not even to your closest friends. If you ever meet one person who tells you they're your brother, sister, mother or whatever, I want you to keep secret about our little relationship. If you ever raise the topic, even indirectly to another person, I will stop speaking with you, you will never see me again, and you will turn back to being alone, understood?"

Naruto gulped but was obliged to nod. The girl smiled brightly and patted his head. "Good boy. I think you noted you could hear me even when you are in the real world. Now we have established contact, you can feel free to ask for my help anytime." Seeing he was about to speak, she added. "But I won't answer your call if you put yourself in a situation that would break the first rule; i.e. making myself known to the world. As long as you respect the first rule, I will be anything for you; your sister, your mother, your father, your lover, but first, I will always be your friend, your confident, and thus, as long as you respect the first rule: do not say anything about me.  **Can you swear on that?** "

The sense of doom was so close. Kurama's eyes were intense, hot like the sun. Her face was as deformed by the ominous whiskers on her jaws. He gave her his consent by blinking his eyes and the feeling went away. Naruto felt like it had been one year since he had taken his last breath. Kurama patted his head.

"I am sorry to compel you to that oath, but I needed a fail-safe, child." Naruto cried. He felt like he almost lost his sole friend. "Geez, you crybaby." Kurama invited him to stand up as she was holding his hands. The blond boy cleaned his tears, but was still curious as to why Kurama wanted so much to keep her existence a secret.

"Child...", she sighed. "You are still too young to learn why, but trust me, I will tell you in time. For now, you have to be taught."

Suddenly, the boy felt excited. Naruto was the kind of hyperactive child who'd be sad a moment and be happy the second later. "Will you teach me awesome stuff? Like flying?"

"No. I am going to teach you how to lie, child." Naruto whined but stopped before her glare.

"Your weakness, child, is that you are too honest. You cannot lie even if your life depends on it, and that is currently the case. Remember the bullshit you said to Mizuki? How was he supposed to believe in your story? This one had no sense at all."

"But... that's boring," Naruto answered. Kurama grinned. "That's because nobody taught you how to make up your lies. But it is one of the most useful skills to learn, child."

"Where should I start?" the boy replied doubtful. The girl smirked. "You will have to return to reality first." She put her palm before his face and Naruto woke up on his bed.

When Naruto checked his alarm clock, it was only three in the morning. He felt so weird. He was supposed to be tired as he only slept six hours. " _I tweaked your brain a bit to make your sleep more effective. Get up and get dressed._ "

Naruto did as he was told, he put on his night clothes. He then proceeded to the bathroom and watched himself into the glass. He seemed... invigorated.

" _I will try something Naruto but I need your consent first._ " He nodded and then, he felt like he was inside a bubble. Suddenly, his vision was troubled, as if he was in a dream. He looked at his reflection and saw the red eyes through the glass, and noted he had longer teeth than usual. This feeling only lasted three seconds before everything went back to normal.

_What did you do?_  he asked curiously.

" _I assumed control of your body for a moment, child. But it seems like I cannot control your body without showing some features... specific to my nature. To assume full control of your body, some of my energy has to leak through your channels, which cause the appearance of those features._ " Naruto could guess she was somewhat annoyed. " _For this reason, it becomes even more important to train you in lying. Our very survival depends on that._

" _To make up a good lie, child, you will have to understand the psyche of your prey and also a bit of their backstory. In everyday life, you are expected to know your neighbors, your friends, so this work of forensics is not necessary. However, to make up a good lie, you have to act as they expect you to act, or say a lie in form of a truth they would expect you to say._

" _Being able to act upon your lies is also a complementary skill to make your lies more relevant. The closer your lies are to reality, the harder it is for others to unravel your intents. Never acting out of character with people you know is a must. The less you bring attention to yourself, the better. Changes have to be subtle, slow. That is why I did not answer to you at school, because for now, you are not trained to both listening or talking to me and at the same time, pursue your current activities without interruption in your acting._

" _If you really want to be a ninja, you have to understand that every ninja learns to lie everyday , and that it is not something bad to learn. Lying is a tool and it is your intents that make its use for good or evil. For now, we will stick to casual things like simple descriptions of the environment. Through your speech, you will have to hide some parts of the descriptions. The best lies are often the ones that are not technically lies as they are just about not mentioning some parts of the whole picture. Those will have to be the ones you will focus on first as it does not require some other skills that the true lie actually needs to be effective._

" _As you are required not to mention things, you have to make everything you say believable. So you will have to describe to me the best as you can the elements I will ask you to describe. Before omitting things about the whole picture, you have to master every elements of the picture to make your statements believable._ "

" _Do you have any questions, child?_ "

Naruto shook his head. He incorporated all those notions quickly. It was weird for him to be so concentrated on the sole task of listening to the Voice, but it was maybe because it was late in the night and as it was the only thing he can focus on, he was more effective.

" _As you can deduce, I can synchronize your senses to my own. I can see what you see, smell what you smell, and listen to what you're listening to. This is an ability I use by default. For the current exercise, we will proceed in two phases. The first phase, I will disable the synchronization and you will describe to me everything you pick up, and then, in a second phase, I will enable again the synchronization and tell you what was good, what was less good, and what error you must avoid._

" _You will select within your bedroom five kind of items. It could be your toothbrush up to your Kunai toys. It doesn't matter. We will stick to five items at first. Tell me when you are ready._ "

Naruto breathed deeply. He felt like he was about to lose something really important to him, something like his integrity, and that once he started this exercise, he would never be able to come back. He felt like a kunai that was about to be melted down and reforged into a deadlier weapon.

_I am ready_ , he finally said. And then, he felt his senses become... less developed. He started to feel a bit tired, his muscles started to ache. He could no longer hear the snores of his neighbors or the fly buzzing in his bedroom. Only the soft sound of the rain resonating on the tiles of his condominium. And above the rest, he felt sad in a sense. He realized that their linked benefits went both ways. He turned back to look at what he once was; a lonely kid.

" _What are you waiting for, child?_ " the voice asked surprised.

_Sorry, I was thinking about unnecessary things,_  he replied a bit conservative. The voice did not reply, but he somehow felt like it gave him its consent.

Then, Naruto started to pick up random things in his bedroom. The first thing was his blanket.

_This... thing enables to keep its owner warm at night by covering his whole body. The thing is white with some pictures drawn over it. The pictures represent kunai and shuriken._

Naruto could not really say anything else about that.

_This thing has a title. It is useful to transmit knowledge about a topic._

Naruto scratched his head. It would be enough, he thought, he never read this book anyways. He chose a roller of wire for the next step.

_This thing is used to place traps. It consists in two parts, one indicated in the other. It has cylindrical form, and can be transported easily in a pocket._

Weirdly, he felt prouder with that description. He'd better hurry to pick up a next thing. He chose a stuffed toy in form of a monkey.

_I use that when I feel I am lonely or sad. Its soft texture comforts me. It's cute._

It was strange to incorporate a personal value into an item. But Naruto guessed it was part of the exercise. For the last, he chose the giant picture of the Yondaime on his bedside.

_This time, it is a representation of a very strong man who sacrificed himself for his country. He's an example to all students and somebody to be look at._

" _Do you want to become like him?_ " he heard the Voice speak. Was it also part of the exercise?

_If I could yes. But I know I will never be as strong as him_ , Naruto admitted unwillingly. He noted she took a time to reply.

" _When you are older, you will be stronger than him. But don't worry about that,_ " the voice said. She seemed troubled. " _I am sorry, child, I am feeling uneasy. I will tell you the results of the exercise tomorrow. Have a good night._ "

"Wait!" he said orally. But she was gone. He suddenly wanted to drift into slumber. He laid his head on the cushion and fell into nothingness.

* * *

There were a lot of noise around the street where the blooded bodies of eight civilians remained. Yellow tapes completely circled the sector. One Yamanaka and one Uchiha were among the police force to question the local witnesses. It was one of the most sordid crimes that happened on Konoha's streets for so many years, that the T&I (Torture and Investigation) service had to intervene.

At the look of the scene, the victims did not seem to have resisted, as if they willingly got killed. Some of them wore a deformed smile. And yet, the bodies showed traces of torture. Some said it was settlement between gangs, other preferred the suicide squad theory.

Mister Yamanaka lit a cigarette. His piercing eyes were shadowed by his hat. "This must be the action of a man or an organisation."

Mister Uchiha, his colleague, shrugged. He analyzed the scene with his sharingan and frowned. "Genjutsu," he muttered under his breath. "Do you think it is a Nukenin?" he asked to the blond man in brown.

"No, we had no reports about known ninjas invading our city. It must be either someone registered to our services, or someone who has always lived in Konoha but never got known to the security. The worst would be if the criminal came from another hidden village, but... I think that is highly improbable."

"What about the motives? Why would he or they target a group of civilians. Fuck. Fuck!" Mister Uchiha uttered. "If I ever catch the one who did this, I assure you he would never see the light of the day again. Eight fucking people. This is fucking crazy."

Mister Yamanaka crushed the cigarette under his boots. "I'll investigate the ninjas who are likely to know about this affair. You should check on the civilians witnesses. We'll gather tomorrow to check our results." Mister Uchiha nodded.

He did not like this whole affair at all.

* * *

_**X** _

* * *

_**It seems like I cannot control your body without showing some features... specific to my nature.** _


	3. Lying is a necessary skill, pt2

**X**

* * *

Dring. Dring. Dring. Dring. Dring.

_Damn, I am so sleepy._

Dring. Dring. Dring. Dring. Dring.

_When this sound will stop._

Dring. Dring. Dring. Dring. Dring.

"Aaah!", shouted the blond as he smashed his alarm clock.

He was already late for school.

* * *

Naruto managed to arrive just in time in the classroom. He inserted himself into the file of students. Iruka who counted his kids noted that Naruto was there. He smiled at him. The blond kid hesitated to return the smile. He still resented Iruka a lot for the previous day beating. Mizuki had just been the mean to punish him but Iruka was the one who was responsible for that. So, Naruto pouted, but Iruka did not pursue the matter and ordered all the students to sit.

Next to Naruto was Shikamaru Nara, the worst kind of lazy guy he ever met in his life. This one was already resting on his two front arms. At his left was Choji, who was eating chips — as usual. Iruka was reading a book about Konoha history, and expected every student to listen to his monotonous story about how Konoha was founded, but as it was already eighty years ago, children preferred to relate what they ate the previous day at night. Naruto wondered how his teacher managed not to be aware that nobody listened to him.

" _Or he simply plays the role of the teacher who's not aware._ " Naruto opened big eyes.

"Kura!", he exclaimed in delight as he stood up, in the middle of the lesson. Everybody looked at him dumbfounded. However, they returned to their favorite activity, which was chatting as it was expected for the idiot of the class to act like an idiot in the classroom. Naruto's inner voice sighted. Iruka did not seem really happy that he sleep-talked during his lesson.

 _What to do?! What to do?!_ Naruto begged in despair.

" _You will exactly repeat after me, child, in the exact same tone:_

 _"Sorry Iruka-sensei, I mean that Kura guy must have been really cool!_ "

"Sorry Iruka-sensei, I mean that Kura guy must have been super awesome!" Naruto repeated with a bright grin that uncovered all his teeth. Iruka widened his eyes as he could not believe one of his student actually listened to him, and thus, this student was Naruto, even if he did not remember he mentioned someone named  _Kura_.

"I am happy you find my lesson inspiring Naruto, but if you may be less vocal about that. And you other students should take example on Naruto instead of chatting!" Iruka shouted at the whole room.

Naruto was startled, he could not believe that a single sentence would completely change Iruka disposition toward him. The other students glared at him a bit jealous.

The voice remained silent inside of him.

* * *

During the pause, Naruto was chocked by the number of person who congratulated him. The clan kids seemed not have to any problems to be near him. Kiba even asked him some tips the next time he searched an excuse to skip classes. Choji noted that it had been spectacular that he attended the lesson at time, but was really surprised he managed to turn the situation that way. Ino commented it was very uncharacteristic of him, and she admitted she had always thought he was a bit nuts.

But the thrill of the event only lasted the pause that they already had to come back to the classroom.

This time, the lesson was more interesting as it was about shuriken throwing for most students, but Naruto could barely breath when he entered the classroom:

It was Mizuki who taught this part and it would be their first introduction to this art.

"If you'd think my dear students, that the fights between ninjas are like the ones described in books; then you are sorely mistaken, for the reason that ninjas do not have time to write books. A fight between ninjas does not last three hours. A fight between ninjas is not about the one who has the largest, biggest and most powerful jutsu. A fight between ninjas is actually mostly about the one who manage to outsmart the enemy, and sometimes, it solely ends with a well-aimed kunai at the jugular.

"That's why all the sessions we'll do will happen in the court, and not in class. At the end of the course, you will be able reach moving targets, live targets like birds in flight. Now, follow me."

And so, five minutes later, they were all arranged before targets. There were all lined up in five rows. Naruto was in the same lane as Shikamaru and Choji. Mizuki passed between the students, checking how well they fare. The result was disappointing at best. None of them excerpt Sasuke managed to land a single shuriken.

When Mizuki passed near Naruto, the blond was so in disarray that he could not even lift his arms. He remembered the previous day lessons and all the torture Mizuki did to him. He tried to convince himself it was Iruka fault but not Mizuki but could not help but tremble like a leaf.

"Come on, Naruto. I know you are better than that. Just throw your shurikens."

But Naruto could not move. His jaws were shaking. Shikamaru looked at Naruto in dismay, wondering why he was shaking like that. Mizuki seemed to be a better teacher than Iruka.

"Naruto, it is an order from your higher-up; I want you to throw shuriken at the targets. Unless you want to be evicted from this course?"

At this point, Naruto was crying. At this point, there was nothing he could do. Mizuki sighted and started to order students to take Naruto out of to the field.

" _Child, let me assume control,_ " said the voice inside his head. Naruto started to complain that it was opposed to the first rule they stated the previous day, but stopped when Kurama continued: " _Do not worry about that. Let me deal with the consequences._ "

And so Naruto slopped on his knees. Shikamaru and Choji went to his rescue, but the blond boy put a foot in the ground and mentioned a hand toward them, meaning he was okay. When they stared into his eyes, they saw them flash red but they regain their original color soon after. He mimicked the words "don't bother" without actually saying them to the two boys. Naruto stood up and faced the grey-haired teacher with a smile.

"Sorry Mizuki-sensei for my previous incompetence. I will throw the shuriken as you ordered," the blond kid declared in a smooth tone. Mizuki crossed his arms and said: "Are you sure? You seemed rather sick the instant before." Naruto shook his head. "Let me do it, please. I do not want to be expelled." Mizuki shrugged in disapprobation.

"Fine. But please, do not hurt yourself."

The blond grinned again as he took five shurikens from the table where all the ammunition were. Naruto looked at the five targets. Or rather, Kurama using Naruto body looked at the five targets. He heard Naruto voice at the edge of his conscience excusing himself to be so useless.

"Trust me," muttered the blond in a breath. He then contracted his right arm, to the point all the blood vessels of the body cracked under the pressure. He put his hand behind in a grotesque angle and a horrible sound, and suddenly threw the five shuriken forward. The five targets exploded at the impact in multiple splinters. The sound reverberated all around the place. The other students stared at Naruto in fear. His arm was a bloody mess. The teacher opened his mouth, then closed it. He re-opened his mouth but no sound came out of it.

What the fuck just happened?

"Mizuki-sensei," the blond said in the most normal tone of the world. "I think I broke my shoulder. I will not be expelled from this course right?" Naruto finished in a worried tone. Mizuki took one step back, then two steps back, as if Naruto was hell incarnated. Naruto sighted apparently  _disappointed_. "What a shame, I have to go to the infirmary. What will I say to the nurse? Mizuki-sensei forced me into throwing those shuriken, else I had to quit the Academy. What to do, I wonder?"

All the students were silent around him. Naruto had gone crazy for sure. He should be crouching on the ground, crying his pain but he was acting like his arm was no business. Mizuki-sensei took a step back as Naruto approached him with a smile. "Please help me, teacher. My arm hurt like shit. I feel like I am loosing too much blood. I think I am dying. Please, help me teacher..." the blond croaked as he slowly lifted his blooded arm toward Mizuki. The grey-haired adult closed his eyes, crouched on the ground and shouted: "Go away, fucking monster!"

Naruto stopped, seemed really hurt and started to cry, then limped on the ground and feel unconscious. Mizuki fled from the court in panic.

Soon after, some adults went into the field, and took Naruto, and brought him to the infirmary.

* * *

Naruto woke up in a bed. His arm was in a white notch who englobed it completely. The last thing he remembered was Kurama whispering him to trust him. But... why was he wounded then? He looked at the windows and realized the dusk fell.

Noticing the kid was awake, a nurse came to him and told him that he had to wait there until further notice. He nodded, a little white, and rested his head on the cushion.

 _What did you do Kurama?_  he thought dizzy. His arm hurt so much. And finally, he heard the familiar voice of his friend.

" _I did what I felt to be necessary. This teacher would have continued his abuse on you if I did not act that way. But now, I need your help, child. Can you listen to me? I am going to ease your pain the best as I can._ "

Naruto felt indeed better but was a bit sleepy.  _Yes, I am listening_ , he thought.

" _Good. I did not want to put you trough this ordeal so early, child, but you'll have to be courageous. Soon, some authoritative figures will come and you will have to lie to them, understood? I want you to repeat what I am telling you right now:_

" _I panicked as Mizuki-sensei threatened me to quit the Academy if I did not manage the exercise. He put me under stress everyday as he beat me after classes. He used a wood stick to break my arms every day. I was so afraid he would beat me that I threw the shuriken with as much strength I could mutter. I had to succeed. I had to succeed. I had to succeed..._ "

 _Kurama, I..._  Naruto started but the door opened, and the Third with two masked bodyguard entered. " _Naruto, do not fail me,_ " the voice finished.

That was the first time Kurama ever said his name.

His Grampa then sat on the chair next to him. He appeared to be worried. He dropped his big hat on the furniture that laid on the bedside before putting a hand on the child's belly.

"Are you fine Naruto?" Hiruzen asked softly. "How do you feel?" The child's respiration was loud.

"I feel tired," the kid admitted as he closed his eyes. "My whole body hurts, I... I... I am sorry Grampa to make you worried. I know you have a lot of works to do and you do not have time to be with me."

But which hurt Naruto the most was what he was about to say.

"Do you want me to come back later?" Hiruzen told him really kindly.

No, the most he waited, the worst it would be.

"No stay there Grampa... I have something to tell you..."

There is something weird inside my body. Something who can take control of my body.

"Yes, what it is Naruto?" Hiruzen started to sound really worried.

But that thing is also gentle in its own way. I think it is not evil as most people would think. I know what you will say Grampa. I know you will tell me not to listen to it. But I realized that...

I really hated being alone.

Naruto coughed. He could not do that. He was not courageous. He was a scarred, traumatized child. Why did it always happen to him? Why was he forced to betray Grampa trust? Why did he have to choose between his closest beings?

"Sir, you'll be late for your next meeting," one of the bodyguards said. Hiruzen nodded and was on the point to leave but the child little's hand restrained him. The grip was so weak that Hiruzen almost did not notice it.

"Grampa... please, stay with me, please..." His head was spinning. Why was it so difficult?

Because I always craved for attention. Because I always wanted to be special for somebody. Because Grampa is always so far that I cannot confide every problems to him. I... I...

"Yes, Naruto. I am staying with you. But it cannot last long. You know I am a very busy person. Tell me what's on your mind. If I can relieve you from any pain, I will be happy to do it for you."

Naruto hesitated more and more. But when he felt the soft hand of his Grampa on his shoulder, and he knew what he had to do:

"I panicked as Mizuki-sensei threatened me to quit the Academy if I did not manage the exercise. He put me under stress everyday as he beat me after classes. He used a wood stick to break my arms every day. I was so afraid he would beat me that I threw the shuriken with as much strength I could mutter. I had to succeed. I had to succeed. I had to succeed!" Naruto shouted the fastest he could.

Hiruzen seemed to be shocked. Naruto cried as he said that. The old man suddenly hugged him closely. Naruto felt like he was falling to the deepest of pits.

"Fuck, I should have known something on was bad, Naruto. Damn, I regret that I could not help you sooner. Do not worry Naruto, I will..."

But Naruto was already sleeping.

* * *

He emerged from the dream, and woke up in the sewer. The red-haired girl again was just next to him, her red glare set on him. Naruto stood up, then approached to her, slowly, ominously. He then pushed her down, made her fall on the tick water. She was no longer beautiful. She was part of the repulsive universe that was his inner world. But as disgusting, filthy and nasty this world was, he was part also of it. The girl looked at him, still, immobile, lying on the muck orange liquid. Her gaze was neither condescending, nor mocking.

And she was still terribly alluring.

Naruto lay down on her, by her side, then hugged her. She hugged him back, comforted him. He retracted, both shy and hesitant.

"I told you I could be anything you want Naruto. Do not hesitate. You need that. Every living being have limits, and you reached yours since long. Let me carry your burden. You no longer have to be alone. It is okay. It is okay. It is okay."

Her voice was a lullaby, a soft lullaby into his ear. He confined his heart to her, and sleep in her arms. If only they could stay like that for all eternity.

Nine tails enveloped him, and stroked him kindly.

It was like a dream inside of a dream.

* * *

The blond opened his eyes. He noted he was still at the infirmary. This time, there was a ANBU with a tiger mask on the bedside. Naruto did not know if his guardian was sleeping as his head a bit inclined to the side. But what really surprised him, was the fact the red haired girl from his dreams was in the room, arms crossed, just before his bed.

"Hello," she said with a smirk. Naruto was making a O with his mouth and his eyes. "Keep quiet, we do not want our guest to know about me, right?" she giggled as she winked at him. She came close and sat just between Naruto and the ANBU.

"Thanks to our bonds becoming stronger, I can now project myself into the real world, but only you can see and hear me. I want give you more information but first, we have to get rid of him," she smirked again as she pointed the masked man with her thumb. She stood up again, went behind the guard, glaring at him with the intent to kill. Naruto looked at her more and more afraid as he saw her fingers becoming claws closing the gap dangerously with his throat. Naruto was on the point of shouting but—

"Why are you looking at me like a dumbass?" the ANBU grumbled. Kurama removed her claws from the ANBU and laughed crazily. Naruto knew he just had been fooled. Of course, she just told him only him could hear and see her, so she could not have killed the man on her own. "Hey Kiddo, can you speak up your mind? I think you are too young to be deaf."

"Sorry sir," Naruto said as he bent his head. Kurama gave him a sign to pursue the discussion. "I am still recovering from my wounds." The ANBU tilted his head.

"Which wounds are you talking about? You are completely fine kiddo. You rested for two days. Your arm is completely healed. Now if you can stop making me waste my time, I would like to bring you at your home so I can sleep in my bed."

Naruto did not know what to say at all. Kurama then come close to him, and mimicked some happy expression: "Alright sir, let's go!"

And Naruto imitated her. Tiger suddenly gripped his shoulder, and Naruto was before his door. He stared dumbfounded at the masked man. How did he do that? He felt nothing. The red-haired girl appeared soon after next to them, in a flash of crimson and smirked at Naruto again. Tiger dropped some keys into Naruto hand and the boy recognized his own set.

"If you got any problems kiddo, just call me and I will be there in a second. Now if you excuse me," Naruto could hear the man yawn behind his mask. "I am going to sleep, because it is fucking three in the morning." And after saying that, Tiger walked away. Naruto saw the girl stick out her tongue to him as she put her finger under her eye before she turned to Naruto and said: "What are you waiting for? Unless you want to sleep outside." Like a ghost, she passed through the door and Naruto hurried to open the door but it took him three attempts to find the good key. He saw the girl laying on his bed in a comfortable position.

Naruto shook his head as he closed the door behind him and sighted. He felt really like in great shape but remembered the man told him he slept two full days. Damn, for once he managed to get up on time, he would have to retake a normal rhythm again.

"So, what are we eating tonight?" Kurama asked from the bed, sounding impatient. Naruto shrugged. "I do not know, I do not remember if I even have something left in the fridge," he replied as he walked to the kitchen. He opened the refrigerator and was dumbfounded by the amount of food stuffed in. There were fruits, vegetables, cakes and even meat. He heard the red-haired girl laughing just behind him.

 _How can she be so fast?_  Naruto wondered, but Kurama ignored his thought and just grinned. "I think you just underestimate your Grampa. If you think after the amount of accidents you had in the last days he would leave you without checking everything up. Do you want help in cooking?"

But Naruto blushed. "I do not know how to cook." Kurama pushed up her black sleeve and showed some muscle. "Never late to learn I guess." She a pulled drawer and picked up a knife from it. Naruto watched her without understanding. Was she real? Naruto put a hand on her shoulder, and felt the physical contact. Kurama winked at him.

"It is okay to do that when we are alone. And I am not really there. Our deep bonds enable me to act as if I am next to you, but in reality, it is you who is holding this knife."

As she said that, Naruto felt the knife between his fingers and saw with surprise that it disappeared from Kurama's. She shrugged. "Consider that I am real when we are alone and you will be alright." She then pulled another knife from the drawer, and started to cut tomatoes and cleaned some salads. Naruto took the meat and cook it on frying pan laid on the hotter plate. Naruto never had so much fun in a kitchen, because he never had so much food to begin with. Kurama then peeled some apples she put with the meat.

Naruto realized he was really hungry, and started to eat some chocolate. He was so hungry he gulped one instantly. Kurama glared at him with a strange tinkle in her eyes. She approached to him, and licked his jaw. He shuddered at the contact and blushed intensively before her boldness. She laughed in delight and got back the kitchen as Naruto was still trying to recover his sanity. She put everything in a big bowl. There was at least one kilogram of food inside. She went to the living room and put it on a table next to the sofa. She gave Naruto a sign to sit on the couch as she laid on left armrest.

Naruto of course, obeyed as she took in hostage the food and he sat on the spot he was assigned. He saw Kurama taking the bowl on her lap and hold a spoon in her eyes. He widened his eyes before her sinister smirk.

"No, no, no!" but too late, she was already spoon-feeding him. Her black sleeve came back and forth between his mouth and the bowl, and stopped only when Naruto could not eat more. She seemed to purr every time he tasted the delicious meat, as if she was eating it herself. Her eyes were intensively staring at him. Sometimes, Naruto noted the light of the lamp flicker next to him, as if some shadows was cast over it, but he guess it should only have been his imagination.

At the end of the meal, Naruto felt like he had never been so full of his life. Kurama held his hand as she laughed and leaded him to the bathroom. Naruto became frantic when he saw Kurama starting to undress and getting naked instantly, as her only piece of clothing was her black neck-sweater. He sighted, and also undressed.

Naruto had a feeling that Kurama licked her lips when he got to the pants. Now fully naked, he got into the shower, feeling the body of the girl on his back. She sprinkled some water over his face, disturbing him. He grinned in turn, and started to run after Kurama in circle, with the spay gun as his weapon. Their laughs resonated through the bathroom.

"Got you!", Naruto finally said as he managed to put Kurama down. He was heavily breathing, as if he ran for hours. How could she be so fast? Just beneath him, the red-haired girl widened her arms in a welcoming posture and hooked him more closely.

They both laid on the ground, naked and completely soaked as they regain their breathes. Kurama tickled him on the side but he got her by attacking her jaws. She had a fit laughter and Naruto laughed as well. Their behavior would be considered improper by most people, but they were not most people and they seemed to be perfectly content that way.

Kurama stood up, took the towel and wrapped Naruto and herself together. Naruto could feel her beating heart and her warm breath on his nose. Her curved eyes tinkled a yellowish taint.

She then kissed him. It was brief, but intense Naruto felt as if all his body had been on fire. She abandoned him in the towel and started to take back her neck-sweater. The boy was a bit disappointed but shrugged and dressed up in turn. They then rested on the bed, in each other arms.

"So, satisfied of your choice Naruto?" Kurama smirked at him. He nodded in a laugh. "I feel our bonds to be strong as ever," she continued but she took a more serious stance as she sat.

"Now I think it is time to explain to you what has happened Naruto. Do you fell okay about that?"

"Of course. If I am not okay now when I am with you, I wonder how I will be." She brightly smiled before his declaration.

"Then I will start with the beginning. Actually Naruto, I did not expect you to react so strongly to Mizuki. I should have expected that and I am sorry I did not plan this. I had to take control of the operations, or it would have been disastrous for your social standing among the persons of your age, and I care a lot about that, as it takes a very important part of your psyche. But Mizuki would have been a hindrance anyways, so I made a plot to force him to quit his job, so you will no longer have to worry about him. He was a failure as a teacher anyways.

"It greatly accelerated my plans concerning your development. I took a  _great_  risk as you were really close to sever our bonds when you were before your Grampa. It would have been disastrous for our relationship but it was your choice to make, and I could not say a thing at the moment. You were feverish, hurt, and tired by the amount of stress you suffered from the last five days. But we only grew stronger from this encounter, so I must say I am rather happy at the end."

"I am happy too." Naruto replied but was curious: "What would have happened if I chose to confide myself to the Sandaime about your existence?" He saw her sight.

"I guess this question is unavoidable. Naruto, if you talked about me to the Sandaime, I would have died by now."

Naruto was shocked. "Why would you die?" Kurama seemed to be a bit sad.

"I did something wrong to Konoha in my lifetime, and if Konoha's leader knows that I am hidden inside of you, he would probably hunt me down. To regain my strengths, I need a host strong enough with who I can develop bonds, like I am doing with you." She kissed his jaw and chuckled. "It would only have been a loose-loose situation for both of us if you chose the Sandaime, and I am happy you were wise enough to make the  _good_  choice," she purred at the end, extremely satisfied. Naruto was completely under her charm.

"Naruto, I made a mistake when I wanted to teach you how to lie, because I was not aware how deep your traumas were. If I had known, I would have taught you how to love yourself first. Your self-hating was devastating Naruto. It took me a lot of time to rebuild your spirit, and that's why you slept for two long days. Loving yourself is important Naruto, and you should never self-loath, you have too much value for that.

"But now, we can start again with the basis. I decided to change my methodology as it would take too much time, and you are more the kind to learn by examples. And now that I can project myself in the real world, you will have to act as I do not exist when you will be with other persons. It will be your first exercise. If you manage to do that, we will be able to proceed to the next step."

Naruto laughed. He was confident that he could ignore her. Kurama grinned, and went above him, like a cat wanting to cuddle his master. She then whispered her threat into his ear: "Do not underestimate my disruptive power, boy." And he now realized that would not be as easy as it seemed.

"And about the accident," Naruto asked suddenly. "I remember your gaze met Shikamaru's and Choji's. I remember you said you cannot completely disrupt your special features when you take control of my body." Kurama nodded. "I do not worry much about those children. They only saw briefly. We will be fine as long as they do not raise the topic to their parents or some other powerful figures."

"And if they do?" Naruto asked a bit worried. Kurama's smile was full of malice.

"Then we'll step into the game, and plot for our survival."

* * *

In the Nara compound, Shikamaru was playing shougi with his father Shikaku. After he was three, it became a ritual to play that mental game with his father. It enabled him to talk in a intimate manner about his problems or his queries.

Since three days, Shikamaru had appeared to be really agitated. Shikaku knew he would not press the issue until his son would finally lift the burden he had on his mind. He trusted his son on his life choice as he was old enough to take good decisions.

And that night, Shikamaru finally spoke:

"Father, is red eyes common as a Kekkai Genkai among Konoha's children?"

Check.

Shikaku replied: "If you mean the Uchiha, it happens when they develop their sharingan early. Why, did you see Sasuke developing it? I am sure his parents would be proud."

Shikamaru shook his head. "No, I did not mean the Uchiha. I wanted to know if it was common for an orphan kid to develop that trait."

Check.

His father frowned. "Which orphan kid are you talking about Shikamaru?"

Shikamaru sighted. "I am not stupid enough not to be aware that it exists some kind of secrets that surround some orphans in Konoha, and I am aware of the rule of protecting powerful bloodline with keeping them in anonymity, since the Kyuubi attack caused a lot of orphans after all, and not every clans have the means to protect their descendants."

Check.

Shikaku blemished. "The boy with red eyes, I hope you did not mean—"

Shikamaru's eyes were determined. "Yes, I meant Naruto."

Mate.

* * *

**X**

* * *

_**She was part of the repulsive universe that was his inner world.** _


	4. Lying is a necessary skill, pt3

**X**

* * *

Naruto tried to sleep but could not this night, so he remained awake until the dawn arose. He spent the remaining of the night staring at Kurama. The girl in black clothing laid beside him, as she read a book that came from his shelve. She seemed extremely focused in that activity. Naruto at first read the content but as he saw it was about Fuinjutsu, he just gave up and decided that playing with Kurama's red locks were more interesting. He never bought books but his Grampa seemed really insistent for him to read them.

At the end, his alarm clock resonated, and he was more than happy to end his boredom. Kurama appeared mildly annoyed but dropped the book on the drawer next to the bed. Naruto took his orange sweat, a cake for the road, and ran to the door.

"Hello kiddo," Tiger said, next to the door now opened.

Kurama whistled soundly. Naruto was dumbfounded as he did not expected him, but shook his head. He returned the salutation. "Nice to meet you, sir," he said in a bow.

"The Hokage wanted that I looked after you in a more direct manner. I must say I am not really happy that but it seems that we have to bear each other presence for a moment, until the Hokage decides that you have no risk of developing... another accident."

As he talked, Naruto gazed at Kurama walking past the man he sent a grin as she put a finger on her mouth. She then pointed the ANBU with her other hand.

"Kiddo?" the ANBU required. Naruto shook his head for a moment, but completely changed his demeanor as he shouted in enthusiasm: "Let's go to school!"

"Close the door kiddo," as Naruto was already walking away. The blond kid scratched his head embarrassed. Once Naruto was done with the door, the ANBU put a hand his shoulder, and they disappeared from sight in a yellow flash.

* * *

Hiruzen spent his morning monitoring his paperwork. He was always one week late in the schedule, but some documents could only be signed by his hand as it required a closer attention. His headache worsened in the past years and he always had to take pills at the end of the day, to the point the Sandaime wondered if it was due to his deteriorating sight. Getting old was tiresome, but Shinobi were not supposed to live as long as he did anyways.

Suddenly, one ANBU whispered into his ear that his war strategist requested a meeting with him. He nodded and soon after, a man whose face bore many scars walked into his office. Shikaku's stance was always relaxed, but Hiruzen knew he was the kind of person to calculate every moves.

And a meeting with Shikaku was never trivial.

"Hey Shikaku, long time no see! How are your wife and your son?" the Sandaime laughed amicably as he stood up. Shikaku laughed in turn as he came to the desk to shake hands.

"As usual, my wife is a pain the ass, and my only son prefers skipping his classes doing nothing of his days," he grumbled as he passed a hand through his hair.

"Haha! Such good news! It is good to see everything is fine for you. So, what brings you to my office?" Hiruzen said straight to the point.

"S-class," Shikaku just said. Hiruzen widened his eyes and the shadows of the room grew more sinister. Shikaku glared at the edges of the office, and the shadows receded. Shikaku took a scroll from his shirt and gave him to the Sandaime who unsealed it instantly.

" _Jinchuuriki:_

_Witnesses among the children who saw the Jinchuuriki showing traits of the demon._

_Traits: Eyes flashing red, more pronounced whiskers, out-of-character attitude._

_Thesis 1: The demon wakes up from its slumber, and manifests through the host in life or death situations._

_Thesis 2: The demon already took contact with the host, and actively speaks to him. Can occasionally takes control of the body._

_Thesis 3: The host is the demon._ "

Hiruzen took his pipe from the drawer. He suddenly looked very tired.

"Thesis 3 is impossible..." the old man muttered. "I meet the host three days ago and he seemed natural."

"Who knows?" the strategist replied. "We have no experience dealing with that kind of things. When our allies came here, we accepted the whole package without inquiring further about the problem as it was their responsibility. Now they are no longer there, we have a newly kind of S-class to deal with only scattered information about the thing."

Hiruzen lit his pipe, inhaled the smoke and breathed soundly, contemplating their options. Shikaku then added as supported himself on the desk:

"The enemy can be smart Hiruzen. Always envisaging the worst situation is supposed to be our line of work.  _They_  could have fooled you."

Hiruzen released the dread vapor into the air. "No. Thesis 3 is impossible. It goes against my deepest beliefs. If I am wrong about that, I am no longer fit to being our Kage."

Shikaku winced. If convincing a person was easy, dealing with their feelings was definitely something else.

"At least, please, consider Thesis 2. If that's the case, the hope is not lost, but we have to act quickly." Hiruzen closed his eyes and whispered: "I already put my best man on the topic."

Shikaku frowned. "Who are you talking abo—"

But the door suddenly opened. Tiger entered, closed the door, and approached to the desk. Shikaku glared at the man, there were no many persons in Konoha who could enter the Hokage office without further notice.

"I delivered the package in due time and in due location. There is my daily report," the masked man said he enclosed a scroll to the Sandaime, who disclosed it and started to read it.

" _File S-8-10-16:_

_Subject N woke up at three in the morning. Subject N seemed to be a bit agitated, but understandable considering the situation._

_Subject N was brought at home instantly as instructed. Separated with Agent T who chose to observe Subject N from afar._

_Subject N opened the door of his room. Subject N went immediately to the kitchen as he started to cook his meal. Subject N ate the meal. Subject N took his shower. Subject N went to his bed. Subject N read a book about Fuinjutsu but dropped it one minute after. Subject N tried to sleep. Subject N did not sleep of the night._

_During the process, Subject N remained calm, showing no external signs of eccentric behaviors. Subject N acted as he was used to act. Subject N seemed sane._

_State: Green. Procedures required: Agent T continues observation of Subject N._

_End of file_."

Hiruzen sighted. "What does it say?" Shikaku said. He doubted it was about the S-class. Hiruzen smiled softly, relaxed.

"It is okay. Thesis 1 has just been validated." Shikaku seemed surprised. "Can I read the report?" He asked. Hiruzen gave him the file. Shikaku read it in five seconds, and his eyes went back at Tiger.

"Who are you? I never saw you in Konoha before."

Tiger turned to the Hokage, who nodded. "Agent T is not allowed under any circumstance to reveal its identity. S-class," the masked man said in a robotic-like voice. Shikaku turned his gaze to the Hokage.

"You know that I cannot devise efficient plans if I do not have  _all the information_  possible at my disposal." Hiruzen smirked.

"Just like Agent T said, S-class. Sorry Shikaku, this matter is not negotiable, as it was one of the conditions for the individual to work under my jurisdiction. Agent T, you are relieved from field duty until afternoon. Subject N will be observed by other agents in place." Tiger nodded as he left the room. The shadows followed his trail.

Shikaku sighed. "I pity the poor fella. You just gave your ANBU a new toy to play with. This Agent T will know no peace until everybody learn about his identity."

It was a game that any agents under the Hokage played, and Hiruzen allowed it as it was a form of training. But this time, the contender was not an easy challenge. "I am confident he is strong enough to deal with those kids."

Shikaku realized that Hiruzen diverted the topic to Agent T but shrugged. When he was on the point to leave, Hiruzen spoke:

"Shikaku, you are not allowed to meet with Subject N, nor ask any of your friends to meet with him under any circumstance. Understood?" Shikaku lifted his hands in air innocently.

"Understood, understood," the strategist said lazily as he waved goodbye to his leader.

But Shikaku not the kind of man to give up easily any good challenge.

* * *

At school, Naruto became the center of attention. His show three days ago showed he was not the kind of idiots you met everywhere. Naruto lowered his gaze and people were gossiping about him. The red-haired girl next to him continually held his hand, and he smiled as he felt the warm contact of her fingers on his own. Of course, nobody was aware of her presence, and Naruto just appeared walking like the loner he was. She was a ghost, his ghost. Her presence was a blessing for him. It enabled him not to go crazy under the pressure. She whispered soft words into his ear every time someone said something bad about him.

When they were in classes, the gossips continued, but decreased in intensity as Iruka would glare at anybody that would talk about the taboo. One of the teachers had been fired from the Academy for abusing his position over students. Iruka was shocked when he learnt that Mizuki inflicted such treatments to Naruto, but was even more surprised that he would threaten the orphan to leave the school if he did not comply to his tortures.

Iruka lost a friend this day.

But worst, he almost lost one of his students.

And that was why Iruka decided after the course to meet with Naruto.

The class was really distracted this day, more than usual. Even the civilians who were normally the most attentive were chatting with each other.

Iruka hoped his headache would not be too bad at the end of the day.

* * *

"Naruto, can you stay a little bit with me, I have something to tell you," Iruka declared as the other students were already leaving. Naruto lifted his head toward his teacher. Iruka had the impression that Naruto's eyes lost their previous brightness which were their main feature.

"Yes, Iruka-sensei? Can I help you with something?"

Iruka did not remember Naruto to be so polite. How much the accident did affect him?

"Naruto, I wanted to apologize to you. I sent you to Mizuki because my schedule was so full that I could not really pay attention to you. It does not excuse my fault I would like we forget about that and we go on a new basis. Do you agree?"

Naruto seemed fazed. He did not answer immediately, and looked at the side, as if someone one else was in the room. He turned his eyes to Iruka again and said:

"Of course. I know you are not responsible for that anyways, Iruka-sensei." Naruto declared kindly.

And yet, his smile seemed emotionless.

Iruka felt more and more worried. "Naruto, are you sure it is okay for you?" This time, the kid patted his teacher arm.

"Yeah, do not worry about me Sensei. As you said, your schedule is full and it is not fair you only pay attention to me when there are other students who need your help."

It was too late for him, he was already broken.

It was heartbreaking for Iruka to watch Naruto acting like this. He did not like this Naruto at all. He preferred the brash, the innocent, the joyful Naruto. But Iruka knew it was his fault. It was him who sent Naruto to Mizuki every day. His guilt was killing him.

"Naruto," Iruka gasped. "Please, tell me your problem. I can help you, just trust me." Naruto widened his eyes, apparently surprised. He put his head on Iruka shoulder and started to cry. But... Iruka felt like the timing was off.

"Iruka-sensei, thank you for everything." the blond hip-cupped. "I am so lucky to have you on my side, but trust me sensei, I am more than fine." This time, this smile seemed sincere. "I feel loved. I am perfectly content of my situation."

Iruka smiled him back. "If you have any problems with the other students, feel free to come to me. My door will always be open to you." Naruto nodded, then walked away.

He did not turn his back once.

* * *

On the school playground, Naruto was on the side, alone, sat on the swing set. He swayed back and forth, eyes closed, with a grin on his face. As if he was a caged bird who suddenly discovered freedom.

Shikamaru looked at Naruto a bit guilty. He knew he somehow betrayed his friend yesterday when he talked to his father. Shikamaru asked Choji if he could play with Naruto, but Choji shook his head, saying that he would be even more bullied if he was seen with Naruto. Shikamaru sighted and sought for Ino. She was with her best friend; Sakura debating about flowers. Shikamaru asked them if they could help him in his endeavor, and hopefully, the girls agreed to come with him.

The group of three kids came close to the pariah. When they were less at five meters, Naruto suddenly turned his face to them and smiled. It was the brightest smile they ever saw on his face.

"Do you want to play with me?" Naruto said, in an exited tone. Sakura asked discretely Ino if it was really wise for them to get associated with him. Ino shrugged and said she did not care as her father would pull strings for her. Shikamaru for his part nodded with a smile. He wondered why he was so afraid of him. Naruto was so friendly.

Then Shikamaru said; "Yes, this sway set is big enough for all of us. I find weird that nobody come to this side of the playground." Naruto shook his head with a smile.

"I do not know better, Shikamaru," admitted Naruto. "I bet it must be my whiskers," he joked as he touched his jaws. Sakura laughed. He always thought that Naruto was a loud kid who did not know his place but this Naruto seemed far more mature.

"You know, every is afraid of you since the Shuriken lesson. I do not see why. You were just pushed off by that Mizuki-sensei. There were some gossip that you were even beaten by him. Is that's true?"

"Sakura!" Ino shouted as she thought Sakura to be too direct, but to their surprise, Naruto just laughed. "Yeah, he was a bit crazy in the head. I do not know, perhaps he was frustrated with something."

"Hey Naruto, how did you do that? I mean, you completely destroy five targets in a single throw. The adult could not even find the leftovers of the shurikens!" He seemed a bit embarrassed.

"When everything seem to be lost, I think human have this ability to find a power hidden within themselves. I think that's what happened to me."

Shikamaru whistled in admiration. It was beautifully said. He did not remember Naruto to be so smooth. Ino and Sakura just looked at him in awe.

The ringer ringed and thus, alerted everybody that the midday pause had ended.

Naruto dashed of the sway and ask the other kids if he could join their group.

They did not refuse. Unbeknownst to them, on the side, a red-haired girl flashed a smile that showed all her teeth.

* * *

The night, Naruto waved goodbye to the friends he made this day. At the exit door of the academy, parents picked up their kids. Naruto was used to that kind of scene, but did no longer feel sad or envious to them. He was happy.

Until a voice resonated behind him.

"Are you the person whose name is Naruto Uzumaki?"

The eight years old kid turned to the origin of the voice, and saw a blond man, who wore brown clothes, with a hat. The man was tall and was smoking a cigar.

"If you may come with me? We have a lot of things to discuss."

* * *

_**X** _

* * *

_**S-class** _


	5. Lying is a necessary skill, pt4

**X**

* * *

Naruto looked at the man who seemed not welcoming at all. The straps of his mantle flew by the ominous wind that suddenly encircled them completely. All the children had already left with their parents, and they were the only ones remaining next to the fences of the Academy.

"What do you want to discuss with me?" Naruto said politely. Kurama told him it was best to be polite with strangers until he knew their motive. The man then seemed to search something on his mantle.

"Be careful Naruto. I smell something fishy with this man..." the red-haired girl commented, arms-crossed, just at his left. Naruto could ignore her without problem now he was used to her presence.

He had passed the whole day with her after all.

The adult finally gave him a plaque that read: " _Inspector Yamanaka, first division of Konoha Law Enforcement_ ".

The man seemed to analyze everything about him. His behavior, his reaction, his body language. Everything. It was the type of persons Naruto had the most difficulties with.

_Kura was right, it did not smell good at all._

"What do you want from me? I did nothing wrong!" The kid exclaimed, sounding really afraid. The adult lifted his hands on air innocently.

"Calm down, calm down. I just want to ask you few questions. Nothing more."

_And then you will beat me, and you will torture me, and you will..._

Naruto started to hyperventilate. The red-haired girl held the boy closely, whispering soft words, saying that she would protect him from anything. The man ignored her presence and shook the child.

"Hey boy, don't die on me. Are you okay?" He laid Naruto on the ground, to let him take back it breathe. The red-haired girl seemed to look at the man in deep hatred.

"I am sorry, sir," Naruto finally said on the ground. The man gave him a chocolate.

"Do you need that I bring you to hospital, boy?" the man questioned, sounding worried. But the boy shook his head.

Why was he feeling so dizzy? Kurama was shouting him something behind him but he could not register what she was saying.

Naruto then fell unconscious.

* * *

Tiger raised his katana just beneath the man's throat.

"What did you do to him, Yamanaka? I give you five seconds to explain."

"I did nothing wrong, I just gave something for him to calm down. He seemed on the verge to have a crisis and—

"If you ever come close again to this child, I kill you."

Tiger's voice left no compromises

"Fine, fine, but be certain I will talk to this to your direct higher-up ANBU," Mister Yamanaka said as he took five steps back. "Please do," Tiger grumbled as he sheathed his weapon as the Yamanaka walked away.

Tiger waited for this man to be out of sight to put a hand on Naruto and disappear with him in a yellow flash.

* * *

When Naruto woke up, he was in a comfortable bed, in a familiar place, he was inside his bedroom. Someone held his head, somebody he knew pretty well also.

 _Kura?_  he thought still dizzy, but he only heard a shh from her.

"Are you awake kiddo?" he heard another familiar voice said nearby.

"Yes?" Naruto replied, not sure. He heard the man continue: "Good. First, I want to say I am sorry for being late as I was supposed to escort you home, but I had to outrun some crazy girls."

Naruto did not want to know who was crazy enough to be defined that way by Tiger.

"Do you want me to let you to sleep? We are already past midnight." But Naruto shook his head. "Now, I rested enough." Naruto admitted as he opened his eyes and sat. The red-haired girl mentioned him to rest but he just smiled at her. He saw the masked man sat with his leg crossed on a chair next to him. Naruto then noted a delicious smell coming from the kitchen.

"I prepared you some noddles. I am not a great cook but it should be enough for tonight. Come to the living room as soon you are ready."

And Tiger left.

Naruto turned his face to Kurama but she just put a finger on her month to tell him to keep quiet about her. He then stood up, dressed up, and went to the living room, with his girl-ghost on his trail.

As the masked man said, he just prepared two bowl of noddles. Naruto sat at the table, and Tiger gave him his cup with his chopsticks. They started to eat. Naruto noted Tiger's noddle went through his mask as he ate. Naruto what kind of magic trick Tiger learnt to be able to do that.

"Genjutsu." Kurama said at his left, as she bit her thumb. "If only we could master that art..."

But aside from that comment that only Naruto hear, they continued the meal without talking. Naruto finally realized after all this time that the man was blond, with his hear reaching his shoulder. His uniform fit him tightly and put in relief his well toned body. He was almost twice as tall as Naruto. His arms were entirely covered by weird tattoos in form of tiny whirlpools.

Naruto's observation was disrupted by a knock at the front door. "Are you supposed to receive people tonight?" Tiger required, sounding weirdly afraid. Naruto shook his head, but dropped his chopstick and went to the door. He noticed Tiger did not move from his place. Naruto sighted as he opened the door and was surprised to find two women waiting on the doorstep. They both wore the same uniform as Tiger but without the mask.

"Aaaaaaaw, you're so cute!" one of them said as she hugged Naruto closely into her gigantic breasts. Naruto could hear Kurama shouting curses from behind.

"So it was your hideout agent T," the other one notified as she entered Naruto's flat.

"I am currently on mission misses. I have no time to play with you," Tiger declared flatly. The one holding Naruto handled him as if he was her doll. "So he's the one you're supposed to protect? Can I keep him? Can I keep him?"

Naruto did not understand a thing at this grotesque scene. He just heard the exasperated sight of his guardian.

"You are aware you are on my way of accomplishing my mission," Tiger threatened them. But the other two just laughed and recited their mantra:

"We are the shadows that the tree cast, the blood spilled from our enemies, the stench of death about a rooting corpse, and the secrets of Konoha. We are the twins, Ara and Cockatoo."

And just after they said that, Naruto felt himself felt and landed on his ass. Massaging his behind, he heard the hush of the wind moving. When he lifted his eyes, he saw the lights moving around his flat at a speed he could not follow. He asked for his ghost-girl but even Kurama seemed dumbfounded before this show. Lighting crackled through the air, which was absorbed by water sprouting from nowhere, water which was evaporated by fire and so on. Which was even more surprising as they did not destroy the slightest furniture of the flat as everything seemed to bounce away once it touched an element of the background.

"Children, children, calm down!" a voice ordered behind Naruto. It was another voice that Naruto recognized.

"Grampa!" Naruto exclaimed at his jumped into the old man arms. This one laughed as he receptionist the child and put him on his shoulder. From his height, Naruto saw the three ANBU stayed immobile, still in fighting stance. Tiger was in a middle of a long series of mudras as he fended off a scythe from the girl who had hugged Naruto as the other one was struggling at putting down some green flames under her boots. One of them had white hair while the other was also blond. Tiger then dropped his stance, as the two other agent who all put a knee on the ground.

"Welcome, Hokage-sama!" they said as one. Naruto stared at Hiruzen with a vision completely renewed. He now realized how this old man could hold the village all together. Naruto searched for Kurama but she was nowhere to be found and remembered her sentence: "If Konoha's leader knows that I am hidden inside of you, he would probably hunt me down."

Naruto sighted, he hoped that his Grampa and her would reconcile one day.

"Stand up please, you put such a scene when I want to come here incognito." Hiruzen declared.

It was true, he did not wear his big hat this time.

But still, Tiger and the two other agents stood at once, showing the result of long training under their leader. Feeling the atmosphere became personnal, Tiger turned silent, walked to Hiruzen and Naruto, then past them. The girls whistled at him.

"I am still waiting for your report, Agent T," The old man said in disapprobation. If Tiger had no mask, Naruto could have sworn that he was glaring at them.

"I will not stay there tonight. I see through your schemes, old man," and after that, Tiger disappeared in a flash of yellow.

"Wow, Hiraishin! It is like since the Fourth I saw that!" the girl with white hair — the one who hugged naruto — declared as she came close to them.

"Hey, Hiruzen, is that man related to the Fourth?" the other girl asked as she followed her twin sister.

"Girls, girls, I am not supposed to—"

"He's a Bachelor?" "Can we marry him?"

"to reveal this—"

"Come on, we're your favorite!" "You owe us a reward for last mission!"

"Information" Hiruzen finished. He was sweating a lot as he saw the two girls bending over him and tried his best to avoid to look into their cleavage.

At this sight, Naruto noted his Grampa having a weakness for big girls. If he ever wanted something from him, it was a thought he had to keep in mind.

"Hey Grampa, why do you come to visit me? Normally, you never have time for that." Naruto asked from his shoulder. Hiruzen'eyes tinkled.

"Oh right, it is true I owe you an explanation."

"And us?!" "You do not owe us an explanation?"

Hiruzen turned to his two bodyguards and told them sternly.

"Silence, girls! You are already overstepping your place! If you continue to act like children, then I will treat you like children and send you back straight to the academy!"

"Hmph! No fun!" they said simultaneity. They started to walk through the door, but the one with white hair turned to Naruto as if she forgot something really important.

"Hey cutie. If you have any free time, feel free to visit us at our house!" She gave to the kid a last kid as she threw him as small piece of paper where an addressed was signed. Her form became hazy, and in a blur, she disappeared from sight.

"They're really imposible, aren't they..." Hiruzen commented.

His perverseness had always been his greatest sin.

"Now now, hum!" The old man humphed as he dropped Naruto to the ground. "We have matters we have to discuss with each other, do you mind if I sit to your table?" Naruto shook his head.

Both of them were seat. The atmosphere between them was clearly relaxed.

The blond kid did not realize that the red-haired girl appeared just behind him, her eyes set on the Sandaime, showing a swirling, spinning yellow shade.

"Good, good, Naruto. So, how was your day? It's been long since you fill me with your daily report," Hiruzen said in an amused tone. His wink was not lost to Naruto.

"This morning, I ate a strawberries cake!" Naruto exclaimed happily. The elderly ninja seemed surprised.

It was one of his favorite game with his Grampa.

"Oh! Was it tasty?" Hiruzen asked. "If not, I may change my cook tonight," the old man finished meditatively.

"It was su-cu-lent!" The kid meant every words.

"And Tiger? Is he kind with you?"

Naruto nodded to the question.

"He's a bit rough on the edges, but I know he's a good man at heart!"

Hiruzen gave him a smirk.

"And tell me more about your day at school. Did you learn something meaningful today?"

Naruto shook his head.

"Iruka's lesson was so boooring! He even asked me to stay after the class!" The kid seemed to pout.

"And what did you talk about?" Hiruzen required really curious.

"Naruto..." the red-haired girl said sternly. But the child had been ordered to ignore her all day, so he did.

"We talked about..."

His voice died in his throat. His entire world started to shake intensively, as if he was inside a bubble. His head hurt horribly, as if someone planted a kunai instead of his head in a slow, painful manner.

"NaRutO, ArE yOu OkAy?" Grampa's voice was really weird. Naruto heard his own voice respond, but with the same diluted effect. "YeS, GrAmPa. i JusT aM TiReD, ThAt'S AlL!"

 _Kurama..._  Naruto thought dizzily. But then, his senses came back to normal. He shook his head, then saw the girl who was now on the chair next to him. She lifted one finger before her mouth. Her glare was scary.

_Do not speak about us. Remember first rule._

"Naruto, did you hear me? I just said I will let you sleep."

"Yah Grampa. Thank you for coming, but it is true we have to get up early tomorrow."

It was already past one in the morning.

Hiruzen stood, waved Naruto a goodbye as he went out by the front door. He smiled to Naruto a last time before closing the door.

* * *

Shikaku was outside, next to the exit of a residence. He lazily looked at the Sandaime who took the stairs from the second floor, where Naruto's flat was. From where he was, he could not read the Sandaime expression. Shikaku also noticed the shadows who followed the old man. The night, the shadows were always scrutinizing their surroundings. The Sandaime came close to his strategist, and walked past him, and Shikaku followed him from behind as they took the road that leaded to the Hokage tower.

"So, how was the discussion?" the forty-years old grown man asked. The Sandame did not stop the walk.

"It went fairly well. Well, for me, Naruto was authentic," the Sandaime said relaxed.

"Of course he was!" "We watched him from the shadows..."

Shikaku felt the feeling of a weapon just beneath his jugular, and finally saw the tip of the scythe caressing his jaw.

"If you brought  _them_  with you, I suppose you were really serious."

A creepy grin appeared in the air, next to the old man shoulder. But which frightened Shikaku the most was the presence behind him.

"The kiddo is really hard to read. If the Kyuubi is indeed responsible for the declining health of our boy, I must say it does a really damn job at hiding itself," Tiger concluded in a robotic tone.

Hiruzen took a meditative stance. "I think we are still in the good scenario, but it could evolve to the medium scenario at any moment. Agent T, continue your mission. As long as our doubts are not completely lifted, we'll continue this routine."

The sadistic laugh of the twins resonated.

"And what the shadows shall do meanwhile, master?" "Give us your orders... oh master!" the women voices said lasciviously.

The Sandaime pointed the air two times, then Tiger.

"You three will do the full turnover. I want a report every two hours."

"Yes! Hokage-sama!"

And the shadows as Tiger volatilized in the air.

The Sandaime looked at Shikaku with a hardened glare, "And you no longer step into my territory. The situation is fully under my control. I forgive once, not twice." Shikaku smirked. He finally recognized the one who leaded the previous war.

"Hay, hay, sir!"

The shadows were dancing this night.

* * *

"I am sorry, Kura!" Naruto said as he bowed before the girl, who just pouted. "I did not mean to betray you!"

At least, he was sincere. The girl sighted and dropped a kiss on his jaw.

"I know Naruto, but you have to be extra careful in the future. You really almost revealed all our hand instantly."

Naruto felt really tired.

"Can we stop this game of cat and mouse, Kura? Grampa will never leave us anyways."

The girl shook her head and smiled.

"Be patient Naruto. I have a plan."

"Kura!", the blond exclaimed worried. But the girl just laughed as she landed mischievously on the bed.

"Just rest Naruto, you will need forces for tomorrow morning." The boy sighted before joining her. He put his chest on her belly as she stroked his head with her hands.

"Kura... are you proud of me?" And like a mother, she kissed his forehead.

"You are progressing at your own pace, child. We will be fine."

Her voice was his lullaby as he drifted into slumber.

* * *

**X**

* * *

_**The shadows were dancing this night.** _


	6. War Games, pt1

**X**

* * *

The blond kid woke up and was not surprised to find his ghost-girl just before him. Her crimson eyes blinked behind the strands of red.

"Good morning, Kura," Naruto whispered. "Good morning, Naruto," she replied softly.

Naruto slipped out from the bed in roll, and put his foot where his slippers laid, before going to the kitchen to fetch his breakfast. He picked up one cereal box, a bowl and a spoon, and went to the table, where his ghost-girl awaited him, her hands supporting her chin.

"Naruto, today is the same thing, do not talk to me as I speak to you but always pay attention to what I say." He nodded once. "That's all," she finished as she stood up.

The boy seemed a bit disappointed that she did not say anything else to him about her plan, but she had to have her reasons.

After the meal, the boy shifted his nightclothes for his orange suit and ran toward the door, expecting to see Tiger. He opened the door and—

"Hello! Oh boy, you are so cuuute!" a woman with a bird mask greeted him. Naruto recognized the white hair. He started to be afraid as he saw her arms approaching him dangerously in a clutch. She had been too fast; as he ended up in her chest again, but this time, no comments came from the ghost-girl turned her head away in a pout.

"Miss Bird, I can't breathe!" the boy said and was relieved to be released from her tight grasp. "Where is Mister Tiger?" Naruto asked as he took back his breathe. She stroked the tip of her mask and shrugged.

"Dunno, the Hokage told me he was exceptionally busy this morning." She sighted, but continued eagerly: "But are you not happy it will just be the two of us, my cutie?"

If Naruto could find a word about this person, he would said... yes, definitely overwhelming.

"Miss Bird, my name is Naruto, and remember it as I will be the strongest man in the world!" he shouted with conviction — of course, because Kurama had told him so. But the woman reacted completely as the opposite of what he expected.

"Aw cutie, I want to adopt you so much!" She cried as she tried to hug him again, excerpt this time, Naruto dashed back and looked at her in distrust. She was not to be underestimated. He knew he would die if he fell again into her traps. He crossed his arms in a cross as to chastise her. Kurama just face-palmed in her corner.

"You Evil Bird! I swear on this day I will never fall to your tricks! I will exorcise you to this world so it will forever know peace!" He conjured his threat with moving his arms in a wide mention. The woman giggled frivolously before rotating her pink finger toward him.

"Thou Hero shall think I am weak but thou do not realize that it is just my trick!" Naruto widened his eyes, stepped back, and picked up his stuffed frog as his sword.

"The great wizard Mister Tiger granted me with the Kunai of Gods for I shall pierce you Forth!" He tangled the toy left to right toward Bird, who suddenly crouched on the ground, holding her heart closely.

"Thou have win! I admit defeat! Could thou Hero ever forgive me for my sins?" She gasped tragically. Naruto dropped his frog and bent his head forward.

"That is not my role to take at this hour, because it is in your soul that you have to find the answer."

"Amen!" She said solemnly. "Amen!" he replied in turn closing his eyes. Finally, they laughed together. Naruto approached to her with a thumb up as he finally found an equal.

"I admit you are not bad, Miss Bird!" She also lifted her thumb accordingly. "You too, cutie. But now, time for school." Naruto picked up his bag and went to her. She presented her hand to him, for him to hold it. He did and expected they would teleport directly to the school, but instead, Miss Bird just leaded him to the door.

"Why do you not whiz whiz like Mister Tiger do?" he asked. She replied to him teasingly. "Because we would not enjoy the walk if I did."

"Because she cannot Naruto," the ghost-girl explained from behind. "It is a Legacy Jutsu that very few have in this village." Naruto did his best to ignore her, but could not resist to drift for one second his gaze to her. Kurama looked like really annoyed by the fact.

"Is there someone behind us, cutie?" The woman with a bird mask required. Naruto suddenly knocked his head. "I forgot to close the door." Miss Bird tapped her head comically. "Oh, I am such a ditz!"

His reaction seemed to have brighten up his ghost-girl's fool mood since this morning, as she smiled to him genuinely. "Good job, Naruto."

Naruto nodded with a smile as they started their walk to the Academy.

* * *

Sakura Haruno had always thought that the good point coming from a civilian family was that her house was really close to the academy. Her parents originally came to Konoha for business perspective. Sakura had been the result of the arranged marriage between two rich peasants families. They were from the social upper-class as they both had inherited a fertile land in the Fire Country, that they now owed. They were one of the few civilian families who could afford to have a permanent residence at Konoha, close to the city-center. Sakura's family was one of the main food providers of Konoha and as a result, Konoha proposed to them the honor that their children could enroll to the reputed Academy to become ninjas.

Mister and Miss Haruno had been hesitant at first, as they had originally planed for their daughter to marry into their associates' family, who also owned a corporative. But they were finally convinced by Konoha when they argued that Sakura would be able to handle their business after her training as it incorporated useful teachings about how to be a leader. Because of her social standing, Sakura was able to get friend with Ino, who came from a prestigious Konoha Clan whose all members were shinobi.

Sakura had always been a really mature girl for her age. She started to read books very early, knew her case was exceptional among civilians. She also knew that she would not be able to close the gap with the other clan kids unless she put a lot of efforts into it. That was why she always dutifully did her homework at night. Her physical skills were lacking though, and she often ended up in the lower quartile in those classes. Despite all her efforts, she knew she could not be as skilled as the children who were conceived and raised to be ninjas.

The Academy curriculum was divided between three years until graduation to genin. Even if the program had been adapted for the civilians, the first year of the Academy was the most difficult as it was the moment where most civilian kids dropped. The atmosphere at the Academy was really weird because there were really two categories of kids; the ones who came from clans and the ones who did not come from clans. The clan kids were rarely seen to do their homework, and they were most of the time slacking of or skipping classes, but they still passed anyways, because they received tuition directly from their families. It was often the point that made most of the normal students leave as either they would try to close the gap and ignore the not serious ambiance or they would do the same things as other kids and dropped out. Sakura classified herself in the first category and really disliked when Ino shoved her in the face that she was not doing any efforts because of her "Super Daddy".

And then, there was a third and last category of kids; orphans: orphans from last war, orphans from abandons, and orphans because of the Accident.

The Accident where the Yondaime, as a large portion of the adult shinobi died, caused by the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox. Konoha orphans received the right to register to the academy as granted. Rare were the ones who managed to get into the mold, and a lot of them dropped to end as street rats. They all had their circumstance, as sometimes, the tuition from their orphanage was not enough so they had to work early and could not afford wasting three years. Often, it was because they were not disciplined enough to follow the rules. While Sakura respected the former kind of persons, and even pitied them, she somehow despised the later, as they were not aware of the chance they had to be in Konoha.

For this reason, she never liked Naruto since the first day at the Acedemy, in September, she considered him brash, inattentive, and unrespectful to the rules. Her view on him was somehow revised when she learnt he was actually bullied by their past-teacher Mizuki and other students. If she despised the irresponsible brats, she loathed above all else the bullies. There were a lot a rumors about him that he would be in fact a spy in disguise, waiting to slit their throat in their sleep, but Sakura found those gossips idiotic. Naruto was perhaps not the smartest boy in the world — even if he did improve since Mizuki was expelled from the staff — but he was good and friendly kid. She could not imagine how it would be difficult for her to stay still if she was targeted by such rumors. She would probably leave school in the next day, and in that, she admired Naruto's courage to face the odds pitted against him with a smile. She now understood why he had been so brash and seemed so stupid in the past.

Lost in her thoughts, she just realized that in fact, the boy was just next to her calling her.

"Hello Sakura! How are you?"

Sakura turned her face to him, and saw he was accompanied by a woman who wore a bird mask, she identified as a parrot, though she could not say for sure which race it was supposed to represent.

"Is that your girlfriend, cutie?" the woman with the voluptuous chest said in an amused tone.

"Of course not!" the concerned kids shouted together. The tall ANBU snickered. Sakura pointed out: "Yes, Naruto, I was fine, until you showed up with that woman."

Okay, that was maybe a bit mean from her.

"You heard her! She's jealous. I'd say go for her, cutie." She teased them again. Sakura pouted and Naruto chose not to reply at all. Sakura turned to the woman and looked at her interrogatively.

"I've never seen an operative accompanying an orphan in broad daylight unless... Naruto? Are you the secret love-child of our Hokage?" The ANBU whistled apprecively as Naruto looked green.

"I hope not, for all the love I have for Grampa, I think he's too old to be my father." Sakura started at him suspiciously. "You said Grampa, but if even if he's not your father, it could mean it is your secret grandfather. Hmm..."

Sakura always loved to play the investigator part at school in spying lessons. Naruto seemed to have reach enlightenment and he asked his guardian:

"Is it possible Miss Bird? Is Grampa my Grampa?" His rhetoric question made Miss Bird laugh. "Sandame-sama is so old that I'd even say he's your great grandfather, hahaha!"

 _No_ , Sakura thought,  _but... a ANBU would not guard anybody. The ANBU are supposed to be the keeper, the ones who protect the Hokage. If a ANBU is protecting Naruto, it just means that he is an extension of the Hokage and so, he's related to him in some ways._

In deep thought, Sakura put a palm before her face, in a very chuunibyou way.  _Naruto is blond._   _If he's not related to our current Hokage, it does not mean he's not related to any Hokage, so it means he's related to a previous Hokage. Naruto is blond, and if my books were right, there was only one Hokage who was blond._

She lifted her eyes to Konoha's Mountain and the realization hit her in the face.

"Hey, girly, it is supposed to be a secret. You're smart so you know what it means, right?" the ANBU chuckled.

_Do not shout it on roof-tops._

Sakura suddenly felt special. Like she was a chosen-one, someone who was entrusted with one of the biggest secret of the greatest village. She bowed to the ANBU to show her allegiance.

"Yes, ma'am! I am loyal to this village by the oath I have taken and so I will not do anything that would compromise the village," Sakura swore.

 _That was damn baddass!_  her inner-voice shouted inside of her.

Naruto looked at them oddly, thinking the girls must have caught a sickness this morning. Sakura was weird, Miss Bird was crazy (well, he thought it may be terminal for her case), and Kura was a bitch.

"And you boy, are stupid," the ghost-girl replied sardonically. "It is because you do not share the telepathic link that unites all women in this world that you do not understand what's going on."

"Really?! Women have something like that! It is so unfair! I want to be a girl!" Naruto shouted, not realized he had just done his coming out before two other  _real_  persons, who happened to be girls. The two persons bowed to him in deep,  _very deep_  respect.

"Naruto, we wish you all good luck with that endeavor."

Wait-what? "Noooo! What did I just say!" he cried. Miss Bird patted his head affectionately and said: "It is okay boy. I understand that you are interested in boys. I can teach you a few things to make them fall for you. Heck, I could even teach you how to wear make-up." Sakura had a fit of laughter.

"It teaches you for calling me a bitch." Kurama retorted with a smirk.

"Arrrrrgh!" the blond kid croaked in despair.

And so this day, Naruto knew he had to never insult his ghost-girl again in any ways.

* * *

Hiruzen walked through the hospital. All the nurses and doctors bowed to him as he passed through them. He went to the wing dedicated to ninjas, as most ninjas required special treatments, only the medical staff trained in that field could follow the patients. The hospital chief welcomed him at the entrance.

"Sandaime-sama? We did not know we had someone close to you in our hospital," the head declared surprised.

"Just tell me where the patient 404 is," the old man ordered. The doctor looked at him, a bit embarrassed. "Sir, patient 404 is in the fourth floor, corridor four."

Hiruzen went silent. To his excuse, he did not visit often. The old man coughed and then continued as expressionless as possible: "Fine, if you may keep that a secret, I would be grateful."

"Of course, I will not tell about anyone that you did not realize that—"

"Not that, idiot! The fact I visit the patient 404!" Hiruzen blemished.

"Of course, I will not tell about anyone that you came to visit patient 404," the doctor corrected magnanimously. Hiruzen sighted, he should better drop the topic.

"Do you want me to escort you?" the old man shook his head as a response. "No, I will be able to find my way."

The doctor looked at him dubiously and Hiruzen had to recall himself he could not fire people on a whim, and certainly not when they were skilled in a area that required five years of training. He definitely preferred the old doctor, but who was sadly too old to work anymore and had to retire, and Hiruzen started to wonder if he should not do the same.

Hiruzen then took the stairs up to the fourth floor, walked through the fourth corridor, and ended up before a door that showed the tile 404. At this point, he hoped that the medical staff would not pull him the joke "patient 404 not found" but shook his head as he entered to the room.

The room was in the dark, as the shutters were closed, and the only light that was brought into the chamber was the one that came from the windows behind Hiruzen. From where he was, Hiruzen could only see the legs of the man that rested on his bed. His body seemed to be naked bare the underwear, but the lack of light sources made it difficult to evaluate, and more now Hiruzen closed the door behind him. The old man took his pipe, and lit it before exhaling the fumes.

"So, how do you feel Tonima?"

"Like the day I would die," the man replied in the obscurity, as if he really meant it. Hiruzen winced, "I already told you to stop making dark jokes like that."

"As if it would change something anyways..."

And then, the man named Tonima coughed violently. Hiruzen approached quickly to his bedside, checked the box on the table and noted it was still unpacked. Hiruzen took the man by the jaws, and shook him.

"Take your damn medicine. Fuck, you are not allowed to die until I tell you that your oath has been lifted!"

The man groaned. "Why serving is always synonym to suffering, Hiruzen?" The old man opened the box, and forced the pills down to the sick's throat, not wanting to hear anymore of this bullshit, that just came from of the man's state.

The patient started to have convulsions, and his veins appeared on his skin as they pulsated violently for one full minute. The man at the start contained his pain, but as it went on, his shouts were more and more horrible. It calmed down after a while as if his nerves were back to his body. Despite the darkness, the Sandaime could see the bloodshot eyes of the man before him.

"How do you feel, now?" the Hokage required, sternly.

"Hardly better," the patient grumbled, as he turned side on the bed, decided not to face his Kage. Hiruzen sighted.

"Please, you can not leave me yet. I need you. Konoha needs you as well. Heck, even Naruto needs you. You are the only one remaining member of his family alive. And—"

"I've nothing to do with that kiddo, old fool," the man muttered in a final tone. "I know what you want, Hiruzen, but that's not something I can give. You can force my loyalty to serve the Leaf, you cannot serve my feeling into loving this child. I keep him because I must, but I do not want me to be anybody else in his life. It is better for the kiddo, and for me..." Tonima breathed soundly.

"I think you are just being unreasonable, my boy," Hiruzen admonished him. "I know you since you were a kid, and you were not like that back then."

"Yes, I grew up," the man summed up with a smirk. Hiruzen glared at him and commented. "You're unbearable when you do not wear your mask."

The man on the bed looked at the mask that now was his name.

"You feel the irony old man. You absolutely want I open myself to others, but when I do, you treat me like a fucking disable, and you complain about my behavior later on. I must say you are skilled to make the ones who are dear to you flee. Only the worsts like me do sta—"

Hiruzen punched him in the gut before he continued any longer. The man rolled on his bed in pain, and dropped on the ground, bringing the blanket with him.

"I want you in my office in fifteen minute, not one second less, understood?" the Hokage ordered coldly and went out, not even letting his servant to answer. The operative just laughed as he winced to the pain. It had been so long since he went full out on his feelings but now, he just felt like a mess. He always did when he sorted out what he truly thought. His sins, his demons were always on his back, hell-bent to whisper him to die. He lifted his arms, and picked up the mask above him, before laying it next to his legs.

He looked at dark blue lines leading to the middle of the eyes as if it was crying. It was ugly and dusty and dirty but well-worned. He fitted the mask into his face as if it had always been part of his skin. The time could erode a man, but could not erode his oath. The darkness enveloped him completely, and if it was not for the tiny light that laid hidden deep in his being, he would have already gone crazy. His blue iris seemed to shine through the obscurity as he muttered:

"Tiger the monster is my name. Killing my family made me tame."

And in a yellow flash, he vanished from the room, hoping that his actions would eventually bring him to his doom.

* * *

"I told you, students who are late are not allowed to enter!" the gate-keeper of the academy declared firmly, as he noted on a note the names of the belated students.

Sakura was crying, Naruto was trying to calm her but failed as he only managed to make her cry more, saying if he was not so stupid and if Miss Bird did not waste time going on shops to try on her new dress, she would never had been late, and oh God, she would have never shamed her perfect record, her parents would never be disappointed with her, it would the never end of her, it would be—

"Now... You let the kids enter, as I order you." The operative said, slowly. Her voice made a sort of rippling effect, as if her multiple persona spoke at the same time. Her brown iris through her mask swirled as she mentioned the gloved fingers before the eyes of the guardian.

"No, the rules are... are... aaaa..." His eyes were sloppy and the man suddenly fell in a thud. Miss Bird put her hand into his pants for few seconds and found the keys. She stood up and threw them to Naruto, who caught it surprised.

"Take those, pick up the girl and cross the door. Do not worry, this man will not remember anything about you, and..." The note between her finger burned in a blue flame, "you being late will not be remembered either."

"Really? Really?" Sakura gulped dumbfounded. But Naruto nodded at Miss Bird and then tried out keys on the door. "Thank you, Thank you!" Sakura whispered as she wiped her face from her tears.

"Yes!" Naruto exclaimed as he unlocked the door. He threw back the keys to Miss Bird who caught them in one swipe. He lifted a thumb to her as they went out of side, between the buildings of the Academy. She turned her gaze back to the door-keeper and dropped the key nonchalantly, considering his existence unworthy of her attention.

She sighted as she raised her eyes to the cloudy sky.

"Now, now, what to do, oh dear master? Should I follow them discretely or return to you to bring you for my report hmm?" She put a hand on her mouth — figuratively her mask prevented that — and grinned. "I must say I have too much fun with those kids so I will follow them."

Her reaper scythe came out of thin air, as she caught it in her hand. She then made a full circle with the weapon, and blurred out of reality as the cutting edge of the weapon passed before her. At the end, only her scythe remained visible.

"Oh, I almost forgot!" her voice vibrated. She snapped her fingers and the scythe disappeared. Her footsteps were softer than a spider walking through its web.

Behind her, the guard woke up and scratched his head, noting the droll dropping from his chin.

"Wait, did I just sleep?"

* * *

Sakura and Naruto were surprised to find the student walking in group to the court. Ino waved her hand to Sakura who ran to her, sweating from the fact she ran for five minutes.

"Damn, so boring!" Shikamaru said in a yawn.

The two late students inserted themselves into the group and managed to get completely under the radar of the watchers who counted the student.

They finally arrived in a court, where a platform in stone could be distinguished. Eight chair were lined up in the far end of the scene, where all the teacher were sat. A rostrum was positioned in the center of the scene.

"It is your lucky day! It seems they have a grand announcement to make so they cancelled the classes for the first hour," she informed the members of teaching staff were sat.

When the two hundred of students who represented the totality of the Academy's population were packed in perfected aligned rows, Iruka went in the front of the lectern, coughed a bit and started his speech:

"Boys, girls, future ninjas of Konoha, we 'invited' you here to inform you officially the departure the teacher Mizuki and to put an end of all the gossips that ran in your ranks. We are desolated of the behavior of this man and present our excuse for those who were involved in the mistreatment caused by him. But, you all have to remember that those kind of things are not unheard of, even among seasoned ninjas, and even if Konoha stance is to strictly reprimand those behaviors. Yet, that is not why we called you there. As a result of the missing member of our staff, and the fact some of the classes had to be canceled, we..."

Naruto stopped listening at this point. Iruka was falling in his old flaw to always develop pointlessly his talks. He searched for Kurama, wondering where she was.

_You have eyes on you, Naruto, be careful._

And that was all he could grasp from her. He decided not to push further. He refocused on the speech:

"And so, consequently, the professor hired was Uchiha Satoshi, please welcome him well." Iruka concluded as he bowed to them. Timid applauds from the crowd when the new teacher came, scratching his head embarrassed about his introduction. He shook hands with Iruka who let him the spotlight.

For Naruto, as he was ten meters away he had difficulties to look at the face of the man. But as he thought about it, his vision field suddenly tightened as if he was looking through telescope.

 _Thanks Kura_ , he thought even if she did not reply.

The man itself seemed aged in ninja standards, even if he only seemed to be in his late thirties. He had multiple scars across his face, and one of his eyes was completely white, without pupil. The man wore a simple black sweat on which there was a fan in red and white, symbol of the clan he was from. His gloves were gripping the wood lectern as he started to speak:

"Thanks my dear students for your warm welcome. I want to present you the new course that you will be able to join this day. The topic was unanimously accepted by all my colleagues and validated by our Hokage. The lessons you will take from me will be called War Games."

The gossip started to spread within the crowd. War Games? And they said the Hokage really validated that? The Uchiha's forced coughs imposed the silence.

"Before explaining the contents of those War Games, I will have first illustrate the context that brought us up to this point."

Many groans were heard from the children, but the man only smiled fondly at them.

"I know that you are tired of those historical lessons, so I will try to be concise but exhaustive as possible. Bear with me a moment, please.

"Over the past few years, in time of peace, the high council of Konoha had reports among the lack ninjas within their ranks. The dreadful Accident eight years ago was dramatic for Konoha ninjas forces. A lot of you lost their parents, their uncles, their aunts, their brothers, their sisters, but Konoha also lost a lot in the political game. We were the strongest, but we fell from our position as many of us left, included the beloved Yondaime.

"Thus, a decision was taken to make the Academy available to everybody at the age of eight, even for students who come from civilian families or orphans who were supposed not to afford the courses. It involved to raise taxes among civilians to build the necessary infrastructures, but hopefully, our wise Daimyo accepted to help us in this challenge. The average folk of Fire country also widely accepted those new taxes, as everybody knew the country security was important and the fact the Academy was opened to exterior students has been appreciated as well."

Sakura was not convinced that the average peasant cared about at the top of the Fire Country, but she supposed that as long as they had something to eat and somewhere to sleep, it was not much a problem. She shook her head and refocused on the speech:

"And we succeeded the challenge, as many of you are here now, listening to me. But, it was not without a price, because we had to adapt the curriculum program to make it accessible for you. As a result, a lot of things are only the basis for the students coming from clans, but we have to make sure to cover the subjects that their clans may have not overlooked to be fair to everybody. And this is way they are allowed to skip classes sometimes. Many among you mistook that right for a matter of favoritism but it is rather an optimization of our resources, as we are aware of the flaws of the system. So for many of you, please, do not skip classes, they are all important, even the most boring ones."

His sentence was replied by awkward chuckles, but he continued anyways:

"As my colleague Iruka just said before me, the Academy proposed a job for a teacher, and many clans tried to shove one of their members on that prestigious role, and guess what? Here I am."

This time, the laughs became more pronounced.

"But the matter of who is teaching you is less important than the matter of what we are teaching you, so I'll skip straight to the point. Many of you were too young to remember but the Third War did happen and I'll also skip how terrible it was. But, but... You have to be aware that in the History, periods of peace rarely lasted more than twenty years, and we have been in peace for already ten years. I will spare you the obscure economical reasons, but I assure you that in less than ten years, we will be at war."

His revelation caused a shock among the kids. A war in less than ten years? How, why—

"Yet, as I've announced before, the Academy now as it stands is not adapted, and many of you will be lacking the necessary skills to survive the next war. All the teachers widely agreed. We teach you the theory of the ninjas, we teach you how to train yourself like a ninja, we teach you how to fight like a ninja, but you are not ninjas, you are kids who've never seen the ugly face of war.

"From my squad of four, I am the only one who managed to survive to tell you the tale. But even I, still bear the scars. I have one missing eye, my muscles ache when it rains, I have nightmares at night, seeing all my family getting killed, I am a Uchiha, but I am also a human, as you all are. I committed my own share of murders, of kills, and I feel guilty to have killed so many people, even if it was to serve my country. But I am alive.

"I never liked war. In fact, I hate war, nobody like war, only crazy warmongers like war, but it is a reality, and we are soldiers and we are destined to go at war. Our very village is based on the fact the war is a possibility. You will be used, you will be tortured, you will be broken, but I will do my best to teach you how to survive. You have to survive, to live, for you are the dear leaves of our trees.

"And if you doubt about you not being fitted to be a ninja, know that you are much stronger what you let yourself be. Because behind your eyes, I saw something I lost long ago: the hope for a better future. Now stop running from who you are! Confront it! Embrace it! And come to me in those War Games, like TRUE, REAL, FUCKING, SHINOBIS!"

* * *

**X**

* * *

_**The time could erode a man, but could not erode his oath** _


	7. War Games, pt2

**X**

* * *

Naruto was bewildered by the speech. He looked around him, to see if he was the only one shocked but noted that every non-clan kids were in the same state as he was. Sakura next to him was green, as if she was on the verge of throwing up. The clan kids were grinning, and now appeared to Naruto look like they came from another planet. How could they be smiling such a talk? Were they insane?! Or was it maybe because it was an ugly truth for everybody who did not grow up in a ninja environment, a truth so horrible that no adults until them somebody would have the guts to tell them. Did those...  _human children_  grin, because for the first time, someone seemed to truly recognize their value, aside from the rest of their peers?

_Welcome to this world, Naru_ to, Kura whispered in his head.  _Took long enough to realize that the world in which you live had always been a lie._

No, no, no no, no, no, no! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No!

_Face it, Naruto! Embrace it! Become what you really are! Become a true Human!_  Kura chuckled sarcastically.

"That's not funny!" Naruto screamed to the sky. Soon after, he looked down as he muttered. "That's not funny."

Everybody looked at him, the clan kids disappointed at him, and the other kids, like they finally recognized someone who had always been their own.

_Congratulation, child, you have a knack to draw attention on you._

"That's not the true..." Naruto gasped, crouching to the ground, cleaning the tears on his face.

"Student... Uzumaki Naruto is that?" Satoshi Uchiha suddenly called him. The man seemed to check a list on his lectern, before he turned his only functioning eye to him and bowed to him in respect. "I thank you for having the courage to vocalize your doubts about my future lessons, because I know that's not something easy to hear. And I know your feelings are shared by a lot of you, but that is a true that you have to realize when you came here. And—"

"Mister Uchiha," Iruka stopped him as he joined him on the stage. He knew he should not do that in front of all students, but when he saw Naruto, he could not resist. "Please do not continue. You said enough for this day... There are some truth that are better left unsaid for the youngsters. They are not ready yet," Iruka admitted.

"Hey! Iruka-sensei!" Kiba Izuzuka suddenly shouted from the crowd. "I think the new teacher is totally right! We've enough of loosing our time here. Everyday we have to come to assist your stupid lessons. I am no coward like Naruto, and all the other kids like me who came from clans. I want to be prepared, I want to be useful, I want to stop slacking off and start proper training there, it is time the money my family put in my tutorship to be well-spent!"

Soon after Kiba intervention, another kid who came from a civilian family said his own opinion as he was on Iruka side. And the ideological fight spread among all students, like an disease outbreak. Iruka turned his gaze to Satoshi who was evaluating him in return as well. Iruka accused him:

"See what you did? We wanted every children to be unite under the same banner. We wanted them to be like a family, possessing the same identity. You just broke that, you just—"

"And to respond to your other question, Mister Imuno, I ask you, when will they be ready for the war? When they will end up traumatized for life because they would have their first kill and did not have the proper training before it? When they will be in situation where they could die because they would hesitate to kill their enemy? When—"

"SILENCE!"

...

...

...

Everybody stopped to speak, as the Leader of the Leaf suddenly appeared on the stony platform in a yellow flash, alongside a ANBU wearing a tiger mask at his left, and another ANBU with a bird one at his right. His face seemed clearly not happy.

"You all belong to the Leaf. You all are the branch and the leaves of our trees. The fact that either the war is coming or not does not matter. Nothing is certain in this world. Maybe the peace we have now will last longer, maybe not, maybe in the next day, we will have to declare war to Suna, or Kiri, or Kumo, or Iwa. But the only thing I am sure, is that as long we are alive and as long we breathe, we will hope! All of you have the Will of Fire deep inside of you. When you signed to enter to Academy, you swore at the same time to never use what you will learn against Konoha and the people of the Fire Country. I will not tolerate dissension under my rule. I will not tolerate any of you fighting with each other for such futile causes, for you are all my children."

The Sandaime lifted his arms before him, and deployed his fists to the sky.

"Satoshi spoke with the view of person who knew war from since he was a kid. But our time is a different time than it was ten years ago. And yet, he did not lie to you. The war is a reality, our reality. Without war, the ninja would have no reason to exist. And yet, that is because war is always a possibility that we exist. We are no there to be at war, we are there to prevent the war to happen: Always remember that! We are here to protect, to guide, and to lead the world to be a better place and not to its destruction! And if we have no other choice to cause destruction, we will always prefer to choose lesser destruction over greater destruction. We are united, We are the Leaf, we are Konoha!"

And then, he opened his palms to the student as he continued more softly.

"And yet, we are also aware that most of you are in a tender age, and it may be too harsh for you to accept that truth. That's why I hereby declare this day, that the War Games will only start in three days from now. They will not be part of the main course of the Academy, and they will only be an optional course for those who truly want to delve into shinobi reality in an accelerated process. For those who do not participate, well, you will sill be able to graduate and become Genin in the normal way, to take the time to process that same reality. But it is your personal choice to make, and nobody aside yourselves can decide for you of your fate."

The Sandaime turned his back to the children, who only looked down at their feet.

The rain started to fall, cleansing the grief of those who have already scarified so many thing for the peace and purging the hesitation for the ones who have yet to make any sacrifice for the peace.

The Academy was closed for the entire days. Only footsteps resounded when everybody went at home.

* * *

_Name: Satoshi Uchiha (aged thirty eight). Family: Wife: Deceased, Father: Unknown/Deceased, Mother: Unknown/Deceased, Siblings: Uchiha clan, Offspring: Shisui Uchiha (eighteen years old)._

Hiruzen fell on his chair, really tired. He lit his pipe, and sighted as he put down a pile of papers on his table. He had just sent Tiger to regulate the internal security of Konoha, as the agent Cockatoo was already monitoring Naruto and agent Ara stayed with him to deal with the other matters. He had more than one hundred agents reporting from all parts of Konoha. Kakashi, Shisui, Itachi, Yuago were numerous names under Hiruzen's responsibility. Hiruzen gave his orders weekly for each agents in time of peace and daily in time of war. ANBU tasks were multiple; protecting, investigating, and assassinating.

They were extremely useful for the Hokage because they were the only ones ninjas directly under his commands. And there were a lot of parts of Konoha that Hiruzen had little to no influence. Konoha's streets were ruled by merchants and drugs lords. Konoha's territory was just the melting pot of the lands owned by the clans. Even if all the clans had sworn their allegiance to Konoha, they had kept most of their assets and dependency regarding a lot of aspects. In the end, the only place where Hiruzen could fully control had been the city center.

If only Hiruzen had Jiraya by his side, he could depend on him, but his dear disciple fled any kind of responsibilities, and could only be used as a spy. Orochimaru had been a lost cause and Tsunade left Konoha because of her traumas. Tiger was a very  _valuable_  agent but was very  _unstable_  at the same time, and Hiruzen could not entrust him any decisions due to his  _unique_  circumstances. Ara and Cockatoo were his shadows, effective in their own specialties, Ara for her supportive skills and Cockatoo for her skills on the field, but they were too young and volatile to be entrusted with any kind of responsibility and their loyalty to Konoha stopped solely at his unique person. Kakashi was overwhelmed by guilt and was always late. Shisui was a great asset but was also too young and the other agents with a great potential were too young as well.

And then, there was the Academy.

Mizuki's replacement case had been a pain in the ass to deal with. Konoha needed absolutely a new teacher and as such a thing happened very rarely, every two years in average, Hiruzen received a lot of offers that came from the different clans of Konoha. For each proposition, Hiruzen had to evaluate the political power of each clan weighted in the council at the same time as the proposition itself. Most of them were unreasonable; for example, Inuzuka proposed that every students should have at least one dog with them. Even if tracking abilities were useful, they were not an absolutely skill to have for each students in the field, without even considering the important investments required in infrastructures for the project.

The Inuzuka's offer reflected at least fifty percents of the different propositions; not accurate enough, not pertinent enough, and not easy enough to implement. The remaining percents included at least one of the three factors. The Uchiha's project, despite having its flaws, was the best choice over the rest. Satoshi Uchiha was not chosen for his pedagogy, nor for his speeches but for his program. The man was not stupid, but was too direct with his words, and did not realize that his interlocutors were children. But Hiruzen considered Satoshi as being a good alternative for the children who were not suited to the current system. But there were also the ones who did not agree with the new addition. Only this morning, a lot of students' parents went into his office, complaining about the new teacher. It was such a headache for the Sandaime to deal tactfully with everyone but at the end, he just had to cancel all the meetings.

And at the far end of the list was Naruto's case. Actually, Hiruzen did not know what to think about that boy. Up to now, he had only been a liability. Even if Hiruzen was personally fond of the boy — and his quirks —, the current Naruto had at the moment no uses for the Hokage and was extremely expensive to supervise. There was always one of his best agents who was exclusively dedicated only to watch him out, but it was necessary due to his condition as living weapon. One Tailed-Beast, and particularly the strongest of them was enough to deal with a village alone, but as Shikaku said, they lacked critical information about it. And it was a double-edged weapon that could bring terrible destruction over Konoha if they did not fully control it.

Thus, it was a weapon that a lot of clans had an eye on. Hiruzen could not count the number of times the clans proposed to adopt the boy after his parents died, but Hiruzen had to refuse every of them for obvious reasons. Hiruzen had to be certain that Naruto loyalty toward him, and by extension, toward Konoha was never to be faltered by external factors — love interests included. Naruto's problem was complex to deal with; a lot of civilians who discovered his true nature just hated him, not understanding the fact Naruto was only a host, and not the Demon itself. Some of the adult ninjas also did, even if it was far less pronounced and the law about not revealing his identity was most the time dissuasive for the most belligerent.

Tiger's incredible abilities had enabled Hiruzen to delay the disclosure of the fact that Naruto was directly under his protection, but Hiruzen was already receiving Cockatoo reports through the link she had with her twin, Ara, that the rumors about Naruto being the Yondaime son had already spread. If even a young girl like Sakura, if Hiruzen remembered correctly her name, could deduce that true only by associating the boy appearance with his keepers, there was no doubt that everybody could. Tiger's opinion was that he had been an idiot not to have waited for his recovery, but the recent events could not tolerate any holes in Naruto's supervision.

First, a lot of clans had already started their moves to bring Naruto to their side. To show that a ANBU was directly guarding him in broad daylight was a sufficient reminder to halt their plans concerning him... for now. And Hiruzen identified at least five parties potentially interested in him; the trio Nara-Amakachi-Yanaka, the duo Aburame-Inuzuka, the Hyuuga, the Uchiha, and Danzo. Hiruzen could not afford to lose ground on that topic. Naruto was his trump card, his fail-safe, and also his adopted grandson in a sense. Hiruzen due to his position had to take away his family from Konoha. Only the one who stayed was Asuma Sarutobi as he was already a jounin. The Hokage could not afford personal feelings to go in the way of his duty.

And only Naruto had been the breach to this rule.

* * *

Naruto was laid on his bed, at home. Some students like Shikamaru, Chouji, Ino or some others he never talked to like Shino invited him to spend the remaining day within their clan compound but Naruto declined. Kurama had warned him to tread carefully when he was with the clan kids as some of them had ways to go into his mind and thus, discovering the secret he shared with her. And he did not really have the heart to stay one full day on a place he could not be himself.

He looked at his ghost-girl who was still reading her Fuinjutsu book. Her red hair bounced whenever she flipped a page, as a constant reminder of her presence. He wanted to hug her but he could not as he had been instructed to act like she did not exist. She revealed to him that it was really difficult for her to create a situation where he could interact freely with her and as the same time, from an external point of view, that he would act like usual. She did to him two days ago she had done it to reward him for his choice and because the circumstances were favorable but now, as they were constantly observed, it had been difficult for her to do it daily. She said she could not focus on anything else if she enabled that ability.

But it was also a really difficult thing for him not to be able to speak, to touch, to interact with the only person with he could be what he truly was, and it was even more difficult when she was just next to him. Sometimes, he felt the brush of her mind on his, a soft touch that reassured him, that calmed him down. But the speech of Satoshi troubled him so much that he needed someone to confide in.

_Kura... Can I speak with you?_  he thought in despair.

She suddenly diverted her attention from her book to him. She sighted, closed the book and then sat in front of him, on the bed. "Wait a second," she ordered as she closed their eyes. Naruto felt something inside of his mind, like if he was a clock that had its hands shifted. Then she opened her beautiful red eyes to him.

"We can now speak freely with each other." As she said that, Naruto jumped on her, and pushed her down on the bed. He on the top, his arms and legs encompassed her small body completely. She was now trapped, completely under his control. He grinned at her.

"Now, I have all your attention. You can no longer escape to me." But she just smirked. "Oh? And you think you have the upper hand?"

Suddenly, there was a shift in his vision. She was now on the top and him at the bottom. Her smirk widened. "I actually prefer this position." Naruto tried to stand up but her hands completely gripped his arms and prevented him to take a sitting position.

"You are a bad boy, Naruto," she chuckled. "How should I punish you, I wonder..." Her eyes were curved mischievously.

"You are so unfair to use your powers that way!" Naruto complained. She laughed and retorted. "I never told you I was fair, boy." She then tickled him diabolically. He laughed his lungs off for five minutes.

"I surrender! I surrender! Spare me please!" He shouted between two laughs. Her grin was evil.

"You better learn not to jump on me, boy. And I am the only one who can jump on you, nobody else, not even that woman you name _Miss Bird_."

He looked at her incredulous. "What? Do not tell me you are jealous of her?"

She chuckled again. "Of course not, she knows nothing of you, and only I know your  _every_  little secrets." He started to be worried that she knew that much. "Now tell me, what did you want to talk with me?" She asked serious, as she let him sit again.

"I wanted to know your opinion about those War Games and what you think of that man, Satoshi Uchiha." He revealed. He saw her took a thoughtful pout.

"Hmm... I think they are definitely interesting. It was a really smart move for Konoha, even if it was not approved unanimously. Personally, I would not have presented it like the Uchiha did, but well, I have no idea about how this man's mind compute, not that I care anyways." She shrugged. "And contrary to what you think, it does not concern us that much."

"Really? You mean we will not participate to those games?" Naruto asked, curious. She shook her head.

"No, that is not what I said. I meant that those War Games are not essential to our development. What we need is knowledge, and what those War Games would bring to us is experience. That's valuable in its own way, but less valuable to my point of view than knowledge. It is also interesting as it would enable us to form alliance with other students and therefore clans but aside from that, those War Games are not really so interesting. To be honest, if I had to choose, I would prefer you to hire a mentor in Genjutsu or Fuinjutsu."

Naruto tilted his head. "Why? I see you read that book everyday. You should be an expert already!" She laughed heartily.

"If you think that reading one or two books is enough to be expert on one field, you are sadly mistaken Naruto. I consider myself to be smart, but even I have difficulties to understand abstract notions in Fuinjutsu books, and the books of your shelves only cover the basis. Furthermore, it seems evident to me that it is an art that requires practice, and as it is dangerous, I refuse to risk our lives on that, as much as I want to learn it. I consider it would take me decades, no even centuries to really master Fuinjutsu at the pace I am learning, and we do not have the decades. I lack the hindsight to see what is really important in the information I pick up. I have not yet read the books of your shelves about Genjutsu, but I bet it would be the exact same thing. For all those reasons, a specialist in Fuinjutsu or Genjutsu, who would be willing to teach us would be invaluable. And if we could have more books in those topics as well, it just would be the icing the cake." She finished in a chuckle. Naruto thought she was really cute when she seemed passionate about a topic.

"And why not Taijutsu or Ninjutsu?" Naruto asked, as it was something taught at the Academy as well.

"Good question, but I think personally the response to be obvious. But I think you need a reminder as I have a feeling you tend to forget who I am."

Suddenly, nine furry tails appeared from her rear, tails that were at least big as them. They enveloped her completely like a veil, and only her red eyes and her arms were visible through her fur. She put a hand on her chest and proudly proclaim:

"I am the Kyuubi, the most powerful and envied creature of the world. One swing of my tails can crumble mountains and cause tsunami. My surname is synonym of destruction and disaster. In one second, I can completely wipe off of the map a hidden village. My power is unlimited and all those who dared challenging me payed the price of their life. To respond to your other question, I can enhance your body to a point you can cross the world in a single day, without feeling the slightest sign of exhaustion, you can breathe my fire and use my dreadful powers as long as I permit it. With my power-up, your speed and your strength can rival a high-tier chuunin or a low-tier jounin."

"But... is it enough? I mean, if I train, I will be faster or stronger, right?" He asked. The girl chuckled again.

"Of course, you can be stronger and faster, and for that, you'll have not to neglect your physical training, but it is only a secondary objectives for us. You will improve when you will grow up and as long as you have a healthy lifestyle, so I am not really worried about that. Ninjutsu is interesting as an art, but not really necessary for us as we stand. My powers alone combined with your extraordinary chakra reserves enable us to completely obliterate everything on our way. Yet, Genjutsu and Fuinjutsu are a completely different matter. Being able to controlling the minds of individuals and the way they perceive their environment is invaluable. Fuinjutsu is an art... that enables virtually everything, but it requires time and preparation. Beautifully useful and yet extremely expensive in terms of resources we have to allocate to make it work."

She then left the bed, and started to walk through the room. Naruto stood up as well, but when he did, she turned to him with the saddest smile he had ever seen from her.

"Naruto, it took me centuries to realize the reasons for which humans were enable to overpower me. How comes a powerful and immortal being as I am could be enslaved by lesser creatures, both in intelligence and power. It finally came to me that it was because I was flawed. From the beginning, I was flawed, Naruto. My blind spot is which cost me my freedom, and the freedom all my brethren. I lack the knowledge. I have all the power at my disposal but I do not have the knowledge to perfectly use it."

"And that's why you were sealed inside of me?" She nodded but then sighted. Naruto had the impression she looked at him with compassion and sadness, an infinite sadness.

"Naruto, I have a really,  _really_  important information to reveal to you. I want you to stay as calm as you can. I think this information is so important that it may change our relationship forever and  _certainly_  forever the way you perceive your world. I kept this information from you because I did not know how you would have reacted if I told you before. I had doubts about this information being true since two years but it is only now I learned some stuff about Fuinjutsu that I am perfectly confident about that information. It is also the reason for which you will be my last host. Are you ready to hear it, Naruto? I do not want to force you into anything."

Naruto laughed as he shrugged.

"After all the tease you gave me, I do not think I will be able to get away with a  _no, I don't care._ "

Kurama nodded and took a deep breath. Her face seemed to be expressionless as she spoke:

"Naruto, there are no seal that can keep me imprisoned inside of you."

* * *

"Naruto, there are no seal that can keep me imprisoned inside of you." "Naruto, there are no seal that can keep me imprisoned inside of you." "Naruto, there are no seal that can keep me imprisoned inside of you."

This sentence kept repeating inside of his head, like a music you forgot to turn off when you went to bed at night but that still persisted in your sleep. Naruto only started to realize all the implications of this information. It meant… so many things he did not want to consider, could not even consider. It was the similar kind of information that when a doctor announced you had an incurable disease that could kill you in any moment and there were no cure yet that had been found. The kind of information that would frighten any being with the slightest ounce of self-preservation.

"You-then-why-how-what?" He wanted to ask but they were so many possibilities, so many questions inside of him he did not know where to start.

He saw her smile to him as she shook her head sadly, very sadly.

He recollected all the information she had told him during their conversations:

"I am the Kyuubi, the most powerful and envied creature of the world."

"I have all the power at my disposal but I do not have the knowledge to perfectly use it."

"I have difficulties to understand abstract notions in Fuinjutsu"

"A specialist in Fuinjutsu or Genjutsu, who would be willing to teach us would be invaluable."

"It seems like I cannot control your body without showing some features... specific to my nature."

"It is also the reason for which you will be my last host."

Like small pieces of a puzzle that got assembled into a bigger picture, like bricks that laid the foundation of a house, like small brushes of paint that together formed a masterwork, ideas clicked, accumulated into his mind as he realized the whole picture behind Kurama's schemes, why she was so adamant not to be discovered inside of him. Or rather, it was not a problem to be hidden Naruto realized. He also realized that his Grampa probably knew she was inside of him, and even more; Naruto guessed his Grampa participated in the whole sealing, the fact he had a demon inside his belly.

What  **Kurama**  really  **wanted to hide**  was not the fact she was inside of him, but rather  **the**   **fact**   **she was inside of him**   **not**   **because she could not get out, but because she**   **did not want to get out**.

He also realized why people hated him since he was a kid. He started to realize why recently, now he was being followed by a ANBU, people started to approach him with interest. He also realized why his Grampa always visited him in secret. He also realized than since he was a child, he had always been followed with a ANBU. He also realized his condition of living weapon. And above all else, he also realized that  **he had now no longer value as a weapon now Kurama could get free as she wanted.**

He also realized that her coming out will result on his death. He also realized that if this secret was known, his own life would be forfeited. He also realized that he had never asked the good questions to the good persons.

He realized he had wasted eight years of his life doing nothing, learning nothing.

He realized he had been dead since his birth.

Now, Naruto fully understood the meaning, when she said to him he had to  **lie**  to survive. He understood fully that him being alive had been a  **lie**  since the beginning. And to continue to live, he would have to continue to  **lie**  until the day he would die.

He suddenly felt dizzy, really dizzy, as if someone had hit him on the head with a hammer one time, many times, successively, sequentially, simultaneously.

He wanted to say something, but it was as if something solid was stuck in his throat. His tears were glistening in the corners of his eyes. The red-haired girl with nine furry tails looked at him in a sadness that could not be transmitted by words alone.

Since the beginning, his whole life had been a waste.

"I... I... Why am I still alive? Why do I still breathe? What is my use? What is my purpose? Why is this world, this reality so fucking unfair!" Naruto screamed the last words as his tears finally came down.

Kurama cried as well as she finally explained:

"When the Yondaime tried to seal me, he did not have the time to do it completely, and as a result, the seal that is supposed to keep me inside of you is imperfect. That was why it was so easy for me to contact you, to modify the seal, to assume control of your body, to modify your perception of the reality, and to many other things among the rest. I am sorry to say that the Yondaime... sacrificed his life for nothing.

"You want to know the funny thing? For six years inside of you, I screamed against my fate, against the world, against the humanity. But when I realized the whole time I've been sealed inside of you, I could have gone out any time I wanted, I did feel really stupid. It is silly right? We are not aware of something unless this one is right under our nose. I felt so pathetic."

"I... I... Fuck. Fuck. FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!" Naruto shouted as he slammed his fists against his legs. He dropped to his knees, as he could no longer hold his tears that were dropping like an infinite river.

"I am so sorry Naruto. I did not want this, trust me."

"I know, fuck! I know it is not your fault! I know you are a victim as I am! I know that you only wanted your freedom! I know that you are not the evil thing that all people badmouthed about. I know that too well. I..."

She hugged him, closely, and kissed him one time, multiple times. He also returned the kiss the same amount of times. It was nothing compared to the first one they had. The first one had been intense in passion, those were intense in the sadness, the loneliness they shared.

But they were no longer alone, they were both, together, unite, like a single and one unique mind.

When he opened his eyes, he saw her opened her own, as if he faced his reflect before a mirror. And now, her eyes seemed even more beautiful to him now he understood all the mystery behind them.

They went to the bed, as they still held each other closely. Their tears continued to fall.

After a while, after a long while, when the dusk had already fallen, Kurama spoke again:

"Naruto, the reason for which I did not get out, I will reveal it to you now:

"Naruto, there many things I want for us, and among those things, I want us to grow stronger, faster, smarter, and that, the quickest as possible. I want us to be invincible. All my plans are directed toward this goal. There are many ways to become strong. First is power, but we have power. Second is knowledge, that we do not have yet. Third is influence, something that we do no have at all and that is hardest to acquire and keep.

"With power, you can force people into doing what you want, but you cannot force them to do it efficiently. With knowledge, you can force people not only into doing what you want, but also in a perfect way. With influence, you can only force people into doing what you want, in a perfect way, but also in ways you could not have thought first hand.

"But as I said, for having all those things, we need to do compromise. To make people accept to give those things for free, we have to give what they want. And that is why I taught you how to lie. That is why I did not take control of your body. Because you are invaluable for me, Naruto, and since I knew the truth about the seal, I knew that there would be no other hosts like you, and that's  **why**   **I did not kill you**  by suppressing your will and taking control of your body indefinitely. But I knew what would have happened if I was discovered to be in fact the Kyuubi while controlling my body: the humans would have just put me into another jail and this time, I would not have been able to come into the same compromise as we are having now.

"For me, you are an investment Naruto, an invaluable investment. I waited two years since I knew the truth to find the good moment to contact you. In fact Naruto, the night you were attacked, six days ago, your aggressors did even not touch you once. All you felt was a Genjutsu, probably made by Tiger. Of course, I could have dispelled it, but I did not. I needed your trauma Naruto. I needed that flaw inside your psyche to be closer to you, to appear to you like your unique chance to have a friend, to have someone who is dear to you. Everything I put you through, the fact I forced you to choose me over your Grampa, all to finally reveal that truth to you so you can finally chose me, over any other options. That was my unique, and sole plan since I realized the truth about you, about us."

And now, the puzzle was complete. For Naruto, it finally made sense. Everything made sense actually. Why she acted that way, why everybody acted that way toward him. He finally understood why she lied to him everytime until now. He finally understood why everything he lived, everything he went through had been part of her game, a game she prepared the pieces for two years.

But he smiled to her. A fond smile, a smile not from someone who had manipulated, but from someone who was happy to have been manipulated for his own good.

Then, seeing this, Kurama required:

"Do you know what  **the**   **Prisoner's Dilemma** is, Naruto?"

But he shook his head negatively. The grin she wore showed all her teeth. She seemed to be ecstatic.

"It is actually a really funny game theory in economy. The theory is based on the idea that you have two criminals who are faced with a problem:

"They are both confronted to the Police forces, who put them in two separated cells. The Police forces gave them both an ultimatum: if they reveal that the other criminal is guilty, they are free, else they go in jail for a great amount of years. They also knew that the system is built the way that if none of them admit the other criminal is guilty, they get a significant reduction in their penalty, but if both say the other criminal is guilty, they are both considered guilty, and then they both undergo an ever greater amount of years in jail"

"I think it represents our situation well, isn't it?"

He nodded. He understood the undermeaning of it. If he revealed the fact that Kurama wanted to hide, he may have a chance to survive (not certain but still) to have a seal more efficient into restraining Kurama, but at the end, it would just destroy the bonds he had with her. She already explained to him why she had no interest in taking over his body and it was better for her if he was alive. If both of them cooperated, they would have to suffer for a few years to have to lie to everybody, but at the end they would be free, and Naruto could not even imagine if him and Kurama were at war with each other, it was something unimaginable for him.

Seeing that he understood, she gave him a kiss again.

"Yes Naruto. The Prisoner's Dilemna is built in a way that ultimately forces the criminals to accuse their peer. If you build the theory into a mathematical model, and expand the time to maybe one decade, one century or one millennium, you will realize that the sooner the prisoner reveals the other is guilty, the sooner he will be free, so both the prisoners have all the incensitive to betray their partner day one. But I think we are stronger than a simple theory Naruto. I believe we can go way over that stupid Prisonner's Dilemna, I believe we can be stronger than anything else in this world, I believe that together, we can even be invincible!"

It was a message of hope, a message he would never believe that could be possible until she said it right before him.

She gave him a purpose. She gave him her trust. And much more, she returned to him his own life.

Her eyes were curved maliciously toward his direction.

"So Naruto, do you want you to be my partner in crime?"

Naruto held her hand, in a way that he meant he would never want to let it go.

"Yes Kura, I am your criminal, but you are also my criminal. I am your jailor as you are my jailor. We are two, but we are one."

"And I love you," he finality declared, without hesitation. It was maybe the first time that Naruto saw Kurama blushing. How could she, who was always so bold, so confident, blush?

"I don't now if I can say that as I am originally a demon formed by chakra, but I think my feelings toward you is the closest that I could call love. So yes, Naruto, I love you too."

It was a love born from their unique circumstances, it was a love born inside of a prison, their prison, but it was a love they would never forsake.

Naruto smirked at her.

"Anything else you want to reveal to me, Kura, before we come back to reality? I don't know, now you told me all those things, I can even expect you to say that in ten years, the end of the world and the universe as we know it is coming."

Kurama laughed.

"No, I am maybe strong, but I am not omnipotent. Let's see what the future reserves to us, Naruto."

They stood together, the blond boy with whiskers on his face and an imperfect seal on his belly, and the red-haired girl with nine furry tails who was in fact a Fox made of chakra. Night was falling, but they did not care because they were creatures of the Night. And they knew after the night, the sun would come back in all its glory and they would finally be free.

Yes, together, they would face everything on their way.

For they were free.

* * *

**X**

* * *

_**Naruto, I love you** _


	8. War Games, pt3

**X**

* * *

Naruto stared at the red-haired girl who was stood up in the center of the room. His arms crossed, he observed her exhaling deeply when she opened her crimson eyes in his direction.

"Why did you choose that piece of clothing?" It was a question that he wanted to ask her since the first time she appeared before him in this form.

She smiled. "One black uniform is easier for me to represent to your eyes. Else, I would have to be naked and I do not think it is proper for a boy of your age to be accustomed to naked figures of the opposite sex." She shook her head and asked:

"So Naruto, are you ready? You are currently in the kitchen cooking noodles. When I will release you from this fake world, you will be just in front of the tap."

He nodded. He knew what he was seeing now was not the reality, but knowing in deep the reasons of why his perceptions of reality had been altered made the whole thing even more confusing. But something else came to his attention; would he still be able to see her in the reality?

He suddenly saw the girl looking at him, deadly serious:

"Be careful not to fall, the sensation you will feel when you come back will be disorientation and sickness the time your brain adjust to the new situation. Try not to act out of character," and she then smiled. "And also Naruto, your doubts were right about me, you will no longer be able see me in the ghostly form in reality; now you are aware that it is only an illusion and I can no longer tweak your mind into believing it. I will be able to communicate with you through your mind but nothing else. The only moment when you will be able to see me is inside this world, as you know, we won't meet until tomorrow night."

He nodded again. He knew it was an exceptional and intimate moment he was sharing with her. He profited every minutes, every seconds he could still see her. He smelt her natural scent — the scent of the Northern Forests, of pine needles and woods — rising up. Her crystalline voice, the melodious laughter spilled from her lips every time she rebuked him. Her long and curly red hair, her crimson eyes that displayed a taint of yellow whenever she was happy. Her sharp nose, her delicious lips, her peach skin, her small body and thin arms that were completely covered by her long wool black sleeves and neck-sweet that enveloped her body down her knees.

She then approached to him, and stood before of him him. She held his head between her hands, and lifted her eyes to him, as she was a little smaller than him, their chins almost touched each other. Everything coming from her was exhilarating for him and he knew she did it on purpose. But even if it was an illusion, even if she was in fact a giant Fox, even if she was not a human but an immortal being made of pure energy, he could not believe her to be anything else from what he was seeing right now. Perfection did have a name, but it was not a name he could utter. Daring to speak her name would only shatter the precious delusion he had allowed her to wrap him in so securely all this time  _—_  and he hated that. He knew he had to let her go and he could not hold unto her forever.

"Goodbye Naruto, and good luck," she whispered as her lips joined his.

When their lips separated, she became yellowish light, her hair flied as a warm wind enveloping them, making the whole universe disappear. Like a painting that was slowly shred, the true world appeared before his eyes, the morn world where the light was scare and where she was no more. The warm contact of her body, her smell, her kind gaze were all gone.

A dizzying sensation submerged him but he stood, still, his eyes closed, waiting for those uneasy sensations to go away. When he finally opened his eyes, a tear dropped on his jaw, and he cleaned it with his wrist as he feigned to yawn. The water was spraying out of the tap, that he shut down. He then went to the table, ate the noodles. The tasteless texture entered his mouth made him want to puke, but he still forced himself as he knew he needed forces. He knew he had to become strong, and he could no longer afford to waste his time. He knew he was now the most important piece of the board. Him, who had only been an ignorant pawn, now fully realized the extent of the game that had been played above his head, and his white queen was tired to fight alone against the darkness. But she was no longer alone. He would support her, no, he would carry her, so that she would never find herself again in a position that she would have to concede her identity.

His resolution was his oath. His loyalty was entirely hers.

* * *

Sasuke took his breakfast everyday with his parents. Her mother was cooking and his father was reading the news, like every proper Uchiha family should be. The father, Fugaku Uchiha, was the epitome of the traditions, and expected his sons to perpetuate his legacy. Since his young age, Sasuke had heard over and over that the Uchiha clan was the greatest and the most feared of all Konoha clans, and the most famous clan in the world. Sasuke was in second position to inherit the clan, so it was generally his mother, Mikoto, who taught everything to him, to arithmetic up to ninjas arts. She rocked him every night, whispering to him a lullaby to help him sleep. He was her big baby.

For that reason, while Sasuke absolutely loved his mother, he always was scared of his father, who never said any compliments to him, nor he rebuked him once. It was as if he did not exist in the eyes of his father. Only the first heir, his older brother Itach Uchiha, had value for him; the kind Itachi, the great Itachi, the perfect Itachi. Sasuke had been raised in revering his older brother like a demi-god.

Itachi entered the Academy at the age of 7, graduated the Academy at the age of 8, activated his Sharigan while guarding the Fire Daïmyo at the age of 9 when he killed his first man, passing the Chuunin exams by himself at the age of 10, entering the special black operative of the Hokage at the age of 11. There was not a single member of the Uchiha clan who did not know about Itachi, there was not a single member of the Uchiha clan who did not look up to him. Even if Fugaku did not show it officially, Sasuke sometimes heard him laugh joyfully before Itachi report, very late in the night.

But Sasuke was not jealous. He loved dearly his older brother. He craved for his attention, to be recognized by him. For him, if he was worthy in Itachi eyes, he would be completely satisfied, because he knew his father would never show him any kind of attention, because he knew he would be forever his brother's shadow, that he existed only to serve his brother.

This morning, when Sasuke was eating his breakfast, his father seemed to pay attention to him for the first time since years:

"I heard from your mother that it has been a month since you entered the Academy."

When Fugaku spoke, only the one person he talked to was allowed to speak in the same room. His stern glare weighed on Sasuke's shoulder like if he carried a whole mountain.

"Yes father, I did."

Fugaku crossed his arms as he sipped his cup of coffee. "Are you the best student of your class?"

Any other answer than yes was not permitted.

"Yes father, I have the best grades in survival course, spying course, chakra channeling course, history course, forensics course, and Taijutsu course."

Even if it was not technically true in history and forensics courses, as Sakura scored a 100 the last history test, and Ino scored a 100 in the last forensics test, it was not technically wrong either as he scored the maximum score in all tests. But it did not impress his father at all, as he still eyed him expressionlessly. Any less from that would have been extremely disappointing.

"Itachi graduated the Academy in a single year. But you are not Itachi..."

Sasuke tried not to cry. His mother was looking at him really sadly, but could not intervene, as the traditions were the traditions.

But to everybody surprise, his father smiled to him.

"But you are a fine son, Sasuke. Thank you for your report," Fugaku concluded as he folded the newspaper in the trash-bin.

This sentence alone just made Sasuke's heart beat faster. He tried not to smile, as it would have been seen as being impertinent. Fugaku laid his cup of coffee on the low table.

"Sasuke, do you know every students of your classroom?" His father asked. It was weird, it was certainly not a question that Sasuke prepared before the interview, so he just shook his head.

"Hmm... It is important Sasuke to know the kids who come the other clans, and especially when they are the heir of their respective clans."

Mikoto looked at her husband oddly. She could not believe he was thinking about an arranged marriage with an outsider.

"Yes, father?" Sasuke asked, without understanding what his father wanted to imply.

"Sasuke, for the first time, I allow you to befriend with a student of your class." Mikoto's eyes widened. Sasuke nodded, understanding. He then bowed to his father. "Which heiress do you want me to court, father?"

Fugaku suddenly laughed brightly, a laugh so uncharacteristic of him that he left his son and his wife dumbfounded.

"Really Sasuke, you really think I would sell you to a so low bargain? No, even if you are not Itachi, you still my son. If I were to betroth you to somebody, the girl should at least be a princess or a queen of a country. Any less would only bring shame to our family."

If Sasuke was proud of what his father felt about him, he also felt like a fool not to have deduced what his father had thought.

"Do you really not know who I am talking about, son?" Fugaku stared at him, inquisitive. But Sasuke had really no idea. His father frowned.

"Son, you are destined to become Itachi's shadow, you should at least pay attention about it is said around you. The child I allow you to befriend with is Naruto Uzumaki."

Sasuke mouth was left hanged. But he shook his head to quickly hide his surprise. The brash orphan who wore an orange suit? The blond knuckledhead who was the dead-last of every course?

Seeing his expressions, his father just nodded.

"I actually understand you, son. I would have myself never believed the boy to be worthy of our attention, but it came up to me yesterday one very interesting information about him." Seeing Sasuke still waiting for the explanation, Fugaku continued seriously: "What do you think if someone was to be accompanied by the Hokage ANBU in broad daylight?"

Sasuke answered the best he could: "It depends. If the person comes from outside the village, I would say at least a Daïmyo or a close relative to the Daïmyo or any equivalent person in political power. If the person is from inside the village, it would be either someone really close to the Hokage, like his grandson but I heard the Hokage moved all his family to a hidden place so that could not be the case. Anyways, it should be someone who's important but who is not strong enough to protect himself. It could be the last remaining member of a powerful clan, as protecting the bloodline is important, but then, the person would just stay into the ANBU headquarter until this one would be adult. Naruto Uzumaki. Uzumaki is not an unknown name for me. I heard it was a powerful clan who came from outside the Fire Country. One day, they sent one of their representative to marry inside our village. But, I do cannot see anything else why he could be that important."

Fugaku crossed his arms as he picked up his cup of coffee again. He sipped it, and replied:

"I can see you did not lie to me when you said that you were first in history class at least. But you see Sasuke, I like to keep a track to important persons, and I have a record of any important persons in Konoha, and I attach an even greater importance to persons who have a political weight inside our village. It means all the clan head, their respective heir, and also the Hokage. I discovered that the ANBU who accompanied this Uzumaki kid was in fact an ANBU who was often seen in the Sandaime's direct proximity. For him to order to deploy such an important operative next to the boy could only mean two things. Of course, among those two things, one is secret that I cannot reveal to you because of the law but the other thing is different and this is something you can deduce."

Sasuke frowned. He tried to proceed all the information inside of his head, but it was hard to dissociate the useless brash blond kid to the potential individual he could be, important enough to be noticed by Father.

"If it is not about his Uzumaki name, and if it was brought up to you until yesterday, father, it could only mean his identity was supposed to remain a secret, but it is no longer the case, but it means that his name is supposed to hide his other identity. In fact, Naruto Uzumaki should be instead Naruto and  _an important name_. But... if he had a link with the Hokage, it could mean his other identity is linked with the Hokage. But he could not be his grandson, as they do not look alike at all and the Sandaime sent his family away, but someone close enough, like maybe his disciple's or..."

Sasuke eyes widened as he just realized the whole sham. Fugaku smirked.

"Yes, son, he is the ultimate legacy of our village. Blond, blue eyes, bright attitude, if you put his father just next to him, you could have no doubt that the kid is indeed his son.

"Because Naruto Uzumaki is indeed the son of the hero, the Yondaime."

Sasuke breathed loudly. How was it even possible? Why the son of the Hokage was such an idiot? Wait—

"Father, you knew that Naruto Uzumaki was the dead-last of the class, right?" His father nodded, smiling. Sasuke had everything on the tip of his tongue: "Could it be... He fooled us all into believing he was an unworthy idiot? That it was only an act, for we never discover that he was in fact the most important heir of our class!"

Fugaku was now smiling proudly at his son.

"The fact that is important is not that he's the son of the Yondaime, but rather the fact people start noticing him. And if they start noticing him, it only means that it was because he chose to drop the act of being a fool. I have no idea what his agenda is but you have to be extremely cautious with the words you will use when you are with him, son. I suspect that Uzumaki boy will be one of the most important person in the next years for our village, and you have to be close to him. The closest we are to the power, the stronger our clan is, and you as my son incarnate our whole clan Sasuke. Because of all those reasons, you are  _allowed_  to befriend with Naruto Uzumaki."

Sasuke bowed deeply to his father. This was his mission, as the second heir of the clan, as Itachi shadow, as his father's son.

"Yes, father, I will."

* * *

Naruto thanked Tiger to have brought him to school. By bringing him, it meant to teleport him inside a random closet in the Academy. Thanks to Tiger, he arrived thirty minutes early. When he asked him why he was not the one who brought him to Academy the day before, and Naruto heard him grumble something about some ungrateful brats, before flashing away. Naruto laughed, if something would forever be a constant in his life, it was really the bad temper of Tiger.

Naruto walked through the corridors, nostalgic. Everything seemed different now the red-haired girl was no longer her by his side. She appeared so suddenly in his life, that he did not have to accommodate that she was already gone.

_I am still inside of you Naruto, do not worry..._  he felt her soft touch on his mind. As she said that, he imagined as if she was just before him chuckling, but he shook his head to dissipate the illusion. If she chose to give him back his perception of reality, it was not for him to be lost in his thoughts.

When he crossed students, their glare seemed to linger on him longer than usually. He sighted. He considered his situation so ironic because the attention he craved for so long was now granted to him for free when he no longer cared. He felt stupid to have acted so brashly in the past, but now, he knew he would take his lessons seriously, that he would finally become the worthy host for Kurama, to finally deserve her.

He then stepped in front of the classroom, along with the other students, waiting for the teacher to arrive. He brought up a book from his pouch. This morning, with Kurama, they had picked up among the shelves of his bedroom the best book to start to learn about Genjutsu. They had quickly flipped through the page, and had picked this one. Naruto ate quickly, and when he had opened the door, Tiger had already been there.

Now Naruto realized that it was thanks to Tiger he was not beaten to death seven days ago, the blond boy really find grateful about him. Naruto also doubted that Tiger shadowed every steps he took, keeping him from arms. He had always his guardian angel. Naruto smiled as he felt really stupid not to have realized he had never been alone since the beginning. There always was someone who kept an eye on him, there was always someone who protected him from harm. He never had any reason to be afraid of anything as long as he was inside of Konoha. A love toward him did not forcibly materialize in affectionate actions, like soft touch or compliments, his Grampa gave him a home, gave him a family somehow, gave him friends (even if Miss Bird was crazy and Tiger ill-mannered) but from a distance. It was just because he was not mature enough to realize it.

As the teacher would only arrive in twenty five minutes, so he had the time to delve into his book:

" _Genjutsu for Dummies by Tonima:_

_The following content concerns any ninjas or students who is willing learn about Genjutsu. This book will start with the basics of the arts and will end with some proof-case for the student to experiment. This book will not enable you to use genjutsu in fight situation, neither on humans generally, but you will be able for example to fool a bee into believing you are its queen, or to make a dog more obedient by making it believe you are its master._

_Note: If you want to get more advanced notions, refer to the second edition of the book: Genjutsu for Dummies II. If you like this book, please, support the author by giving him reviews to improve the content of the future editions._

_The Genjutsu is an art difficult to learn, as it requires a special set of mind depending on the kind of illusions you want to use. It is often underestimated by ninjas and students, who general prefer to use either ninjutsu or taijutsu to win a fight. A majority of genjutsu tricks do not work against powerful dojutsu like the sharigan owned by the Uchiha or is inefficient against the Byakugan owned by the Hyuuga in most situation._

_However, it is often said that there is an equivalent between the three main arts of the ninjas; that are the Taijutsu, the Ninjutsu and the Genjutsu. An expert in Ninjutsu will beat eighty percent of time an expert in Taijutsu for the reason that the Taijutsu user will never be able to get close the Ninjutsu user. The majority of the users you will cross will be either Taijutsu or Ninjutsu experts, and often both. Yet, Genjutsu is particularly useful against Ninjutsu specialist as you directly disrupt their limbic system as their chakra nodes, make them either mistake their allies for their enemies, or render them completely ineffective. A Genjutsu specialist will have a lot of problems against Taijutsu expert who has a full expertise of his body and environment and will most of the time break free of his illusions. The Genjutsu user will also have a lot of difficulties faced with a Jinchuuriki._ _"_

Naruto sweated and made a pause. He was not really used to read books so it took him already twenty minutes only to read one page, and understand all the notions. The only word he did not get yet what was actually a Jinchuuriki.

_It is just the technical term to refer to people like you Naruto, nothing more..._  Kurama whispered to him inside of him. _It is really difficult for a genjutsu user to guess how our minds work, and we do not really have the same limbic system that humans have. And most of the time, they are dead by the time they realize what you are._

Naruto nodded. He lifted his eyes from his book and realize there were four girls who were watching him nearby. They stared at him intensively, and he suddenly blushed before their glare as he awkwardly asked: "Yes, can I do something for you?"

They suddenly shrilled in a high voice a "Hiiii!", one of them who was a brown-haired girl with piggy-tails presented him with a letter. "For you!" she muttered shyly, her jaws red. Naruto took it while scratching his head.

"Thanks... I guess?" he replied confused. The girl then hid inside her coat, and ran away. The three other girls followed her and shouted something like: "You did it! You did it!"

Naruto was left dumbfounded before this scene. "What exactly... was that?"

I  _suggest you to unreveal the contents of the letter, Naruto. It may be a trap_ , Kurama muttered extremely serious.

Naruto nodded, starting to get afraid. Was he already targeted? Did people started to be aware he did not act like usual? Did they knew about Kurama?

Naruto took the letter out of the casing and started to read:

" _Dear Naruto,_

_I am Mizu, and yesterday, I realized something really important about us._ _I invite you to meet with me after school, for we can discuss more intimately of that matter,_

_Mizu-chan._ "

Naruto was deeply thinking but could absolutely not figure out the intent of this letter.  _What do you think Kurama?_

_Naruto, it is certainly a trap. You should **absolutely**  not meet her!_ But this time, Kurama's voice seemed oddly amused.

Naruto sighted as he replied Kurama must be right. He had to be extremely careful now with who he trended. He folded the letter inside his shirt and looked around him. The stares of the other girls were intense, and he suddenly felt inside a web of conspiracies. As he took one step back to the wall behind him, they all took a step back toward him at the  _exact_  same time.

Okay now, it was fucking scary for Naruto.

Hopefully, the teacher arrived in time to rescue him. The tall man with a finely cut mustache and a hat looked around him, then toward Naruto. He smiled to the boy kindly and then opened the door as he invited everybody to come in. Naruto looked at the man in distrust as he walked through the door. Weirdly, Kurama said nothing. Naruto then sat at the first row to participate actively to the forensics course. He noted none of students seat in the same row as he was. He sighted relaxed, and thought people still thought him as a pariah. Sakura then went and Naruto waved her to come. He saw the pink-haired girl starting to sweat intensively as she approached to him.

She hissed aggressively: "Do you want me dead, Naruto?!" Naruto just looked at her in disbelief and replied. "Are they targeting you too?"

Yep, it definitely smelt of conspiracies. Sakura took a handkerchief and cleaned her big forehead as she sat at the left to the blond. She almost choked. "I am so dead Naruto. Fuck you for real."

Naruto put a hand on her shoulder. He muttered deadly serious: "Do not worry Sakura, I am strong enough to protect you." She looked at him with a glare that probably meant: "What the fuck are you saying?" but Naruto turned his eyes in front of him him as he heard a voice just before his desk.

"Naruto Uzumaki, I am Sasuke Uchiha, and I present you my best wishes. May I seat next to you?" the boy smoothly asked. A general "Oh" from the class welcomed this announcement.

"Yes, of course you do." Actually, Naruto never liked the boy, but as he was politely asking for it, he did not see a reason to refuse him. The boy seemed perfectly happy when he sat just at his right. But Naruto doubted that Sasuke's act was also a trap. Maybe was he one of the main actor? Naruto could not know at all.

Then Ino walked in and just passed before Naruto desk as she sat next to Sasuke. The black-haired boy glared suspiciously at the blond girl who just whistled on sat. Choji and Shikamaru went and unbecoming of them, they sat at the first row, when they normally always sat the last. Naruto waved to them amicably and Shikamaru just said a "troublesome". Choji picked up a bag chips and started to eat frenetically. Kiba entered in his turn looked up at the first row, cursed a "fucking politics", and went to the first row as well. The first row started to get really crowded. Shino and Hinata arrived last and inserted themselves in the row.

Naruto started to wonder why the hell, all clan kids who always skipped class started to act so studiously by sitting in the first row. Was it because of the War Games announcement? This Satoshi Uchiha must have been the first teacher to inspire an entire generation of heirs to work seriously.

The classroom was unusually silent. The course only started since five minutes and Naruto felt like it already lasted one hour, either the amount of time the course was supposed to last. Forensics courses either was a learning about the different cipher-code the ninjas used to relay message or it was a case-by-case study or investigation. The goal of the course was to pick straws and deduce who was the guilty in crime cases or to find the hidden message in a text.

The course was useful for those wanted to join the Police Forces, the Law Enforcement Divisions (like mister Yamanaka) or the tracking team. Naruto always liked the course but never felt intelligent enough to deduce the good answer, and always ended up at accusing the innocent. The teacher who had just finished to distribute the file to every students once told him if he were to be the director of the Police Forces once day, Konoha would end up being ruled by criminals only.

This time, the affair was about a cultist investigation. Jashin cultists had been seen in a vicinity of a weird murder that had supernatural elements and as a good investigator, Naruto had to untangle the truths of the lies. When he threw a discrete stare at his right, he was seeing Sasuke and Ino making weird diagrams connecting many elements on their sheets. At his left, Sakura was doing the same but at a slower pace. The only sounds that could be heard were the pencils scratching the paper.

_Do you want me to help you, Naruto?_  Kurama asked.  _The exercise seems funny._

_Why not,_  he shrugged. She rarely offered her help in the past — to be truth, it was because he never tried to do the exercises in class.

Fifty five minutes later, Naruto looked at his sheets satisfied. With the help of Kurama pointing out the hints, they had managed to find the culprit, who was in fact the local priest. Sasuke who had given back his sheet thirty minutes ago picked a curious look on Naruto's. His eyes turned back to Naruto. He seemed embarrassed.

"Naruto? Are you certain of your answers?" he whispered to him, profiting the occasion the teacher was sleeping on his desk. Naruto looked at him curiously and muttered in turn in turn: "Hmm, I am still hesitating about some points, but the whole thing seems coherent." Sasuke started to be really embarrassed. "Naruto, I do not know if you are mocking me but please, if you do, tell me now. I do not want to waste time in your games." Naruto looked at him without understanding.

"What's the problem with my answers?" The blond asked him genuinely.

Sasuke face-palmed. Naruto acting was so perfect that he doubted if the boy was still completely dumb.

"Your answers are so random. Your interpretation of the cipher is completely wrong. I do not how but you managed to find the good culprit, but you did for completely absurd reasons! How comes a rabbit in the sky drawn by connecting the stars dots, showing you the direction of the cliff who vaguely resembles the face of the priest is sound to you?."

Sasuke then explained the good methodology to Naruto who widened his eyes before the enlightenment. It was true it seemed to make more sense than Kurama method.

_I must say it is an interesting way to find a suspect._   _Hmm... maybe my thought process was maybe not adapted to the situation indeed,_  the girly voice commented meditatively inside of his head.

"Time's up! Drop your pens!" The teacher shouted as he woke up instantly when the alarm clock of the Academy rang. "I'll give you back your tests results' tomorrow."

It was close. Sasuke had helped him to correct all the responses. As he was the best student, Naruto trusted his ability. After the course, outside of them, Naruto thanked Sasuke with a bright smile. The black-haired boy could not evaluate if he really did help the boy, or if it was just a just another test from Naruto for him.

As the next course was supposed to be one Mizuki taught, they had one free hour before them. Naruto decided to go to the library to be alone, and to read his book. Sakura proposed to accompany him. Naruto preferred the term proposed as she said this on those terms: "Now you forced me to be with you, take your responsibility. I do not want to die today."

Then Sasuke also proposed to come with them, in the same smoothly manner when he had asked him if he could seat nearby. Naruto really found weird the way he talked so he laughed and said he could, but the Uchiha kid took it bad and went away, muttering something like "sorry father, I am a failure as a son". Ino who was already his friend shrugged and said why not, Shikamaru and Choji who were also his friend accompanied him, saying the library was a good place to sleep/eat anyways. Kiba did not come, saying he wanted to check up for his dog, Akamaru, and saying he had enough of "Naruto" for the day. Shino and Hinata followed them from afar, staying silent. Naruto thought they would certainly make a good couple together. And behind Shino and Hinata, there was a kind a mass of student that followed them as well.

Once they arrived, the librarian almost fainted when he saw the amount of students who suddenly wanted to subscribe. After the thirtieth, he asked the student to come back the next day as it was already overcrowded.

Naruto estimated he would have to talk with Kurama about everybody behavior once at home. She vividly agreed.

Before Naruto sorted out his book, Shikamaru spoke to him, very lowly as they were not supposed to talk: "Hey Naruto, will you participate in those War Games? I personally think they are a pain the ass, but my parents force me to do for clan stuffs, go figure."

Naruto gave him the same answer that Kurama gave him when he asked, also with a very low voice: "I'll wait to see how many students registers. If there are more than twenty per class, I will register myself on the curriculum."

Ino commented. "Playing smart, uh? My daddy also forced me to participate. And you Sakura, what you will do?" Sakura rolled her eyes.

"I don't know. I did not speak about it yet to my parents. They would probably not understand the thing, but I suppose either they would push me into the course saying I have to participate to extra-curriculum services the Academy offers, or they would be so scared I get hurt that they would forbid me to participate."

Choji also said his opinion: "My dad said if Shikamaru and Ino went to those Games, I will have too, but else, he did not care. It seems we have four days left. One student I know asked the Uchiha and he said we are free to come any time to sign in. He only checked the night to put every persons who signed on a list, that he prints the list and put it in front of his office. This way, he said that if one person erased your name from the list, you can still double-checked with him if you are well registered. Oh, and you sign, you also have to give the accord of your parents that the Academy would no be hold responsibilities for any harm you would suffer from the course."

Sakura sighted. "Damn, I'll have to convince my parents through this if you all guys decide to participate. I do not want to be left behind." Ino grinned. "Don't worry, one word of my Daddy and your parents will be convinced." Sakura rolled her eyes again.

"Hey Naruto, do you want to try out a Shougi? I knew you never played but you seem the kind of guy to learn quick."

Naruto closed his eyes at to think.

_When will I be able to read my book at ease_ , Naruto wondered internally.

_Building relationship is good for you as well. One thing at a time. And it is not like if you can read your book whenever you got free time,_  Kurama convinced him.

_My schedule is tight but well. I will do as you order, mistress!_

_Mistress?_  Kurama questioned in an amused tone.

But Naruto did not continue, knowing they would bicker for five minutes if they started this conversation. He opened his eyes and smiled to Shikamaru. "Why not, but do not expect me to beat you in the first go."

Shikamaru picked up the board with the pieces from his bag (Naruto wondered if he even had books) then he explained the rules, while the rest of the group just observed them. Meanwhile, Sakura sorted out her book for the next course and proceeded to read it.

Naruto picked up the rules easily but it did not prevent him to get slaughtered every matches by Shikamaru. After the fourth loss in a row, he just declined the rematch with a smile, saying it was interesting but he still needed more experience before he could fight Shikamaru seriously. The lazy boy commented he was not bad for a beginner but agreed on the fact he lacked expression.

The alarm rang again, and they went to another lesson.

* * *

At the end of the day, Naruto waved goodbye to everybody. Sasuke bowed to him deeply when he went out. Naruto saw an adolescent wearing the ANBU uniform escorting back Sasuke, and he looked exactly alike the boy. This tall Uchiha smiled to him as the two left the Academy. Sakura asked Naruto if he wanted to come back home with her, but he said someone would search for him directly.

When everybody was gone, Naruto returned into one of the building, devoid of any human presence left. He opened the closet where he arrived and noted Tiger was inside.

"Yo. How was your day?" Naruto asked him.

"If you meant the number of persons who asked stupid questions I killed today kiddo, I would say as many as you have fingers at your right hand."

Naruto guessed that his temper did not improve.

"Now kiddo, come in, close the door so nobody will spot this place."

Naruto did as he was ordered, and then, they instantly shifted in a somber place, indoor apparently. Naruto could not see a thing in the darkness.

"Where are we?" Naruto asked.

Tiger replied annoyed: "Next to the Hokage office. Now talk only when you are notified kiddo."

Grampa wanted to see him?

The man then knocked to a solid surface three times, stopped, then three times again. The solid surface was in fact a wall, and the wall moved to the left. Naruto could now see the lit office of the Hokage. Naruto noted he only seldom came into his Grampa's office and when he did, it was to talk about important things, like the fact he had to change the place of his home.

Tiger entered, bowed to the Sandaime, and then leaded Naruto in as well. When they passed the wall, this one closed by itself, and fit perfectly into the rest of the structure, as if this hidden door never existed to begin with. Hiruzen, who was sat at his desk, smiled to them fondly. his hat was laid on his chair. Naruto noted Miss Bird was also there with her twin. They still had their mask on their face. They waved him a hello.

"Thanks for bringing me Naruto, Tiger." Hiruzen said. The man replied with a robotic voice. "I only did my duty, my _master_." The Sandaime made a face at the word master, and the two other women laughed. Naruto finally realized that Tiger had only two kind of voices: robotic or annoyed.

Naruto asked. "Grampa, you wanted to speak with me?"

The old man nodded and mentioned Naruto to sit in front of him. "Yes, Naruto, we have important matters to discuss."

The old man lit his pipe and exhaled the fumes. And normally never smoked in Naruto's presence, but Naruto guessed habits where hard to kill when you were in a comfortable environment.

"I am sure Naruto you are aware that people around you acted a bit differently, right?" Naruto nodded. "I would have been a fool not to realize. I wondered why but I think I had to confide to you before asking to somebody." Even if in fact, he would have talked about it with Kurama first.

"That was a wise move from you Naruto. Now I will explain to you why everybody act like this. You see, yesterday, Cockatoo accompanied you at school."

"You mean Miss Bird?" Naruto grinned.

The Sandaime looked at the boy, confused before he continued:

"Yes, Miss Bird if you prefer. I originally did this to show explicitly everybody that you were under my protection to stop people like the Inspector Yamanaka coming at you. I really disliked the fact some persons who were not from our side tried to make a move on you, or worse, hurting you for that matter."

Naruto remembered his meeting with the man, and he did not really like it.

"But it had some unexpected results. Actually, I expected those results in a sense, but I did not expect them to be so quick and so pronounced."

"It was obvious, my master." It was the closest kind of rebuke Tiger could have said

Hiruzen sighted and then glared to Tiger as he retorted: "You already did the whole  _I told you so_  to me, Tiger, so no need to rub salt in the wound."

"I felt obliged to point it out, my master."

Naruto swore it was the first time he felt something else in Tiger's voice than his annoyed or expressionless tone.

Hiruzen decided to ignore him with a shrug as he continued. "So I felt like I had to tell the reason why, as you are the main concerned. Naruto, you are in fact the Yondaime's son."

Naruto seemed to be frozen for a moment.

_Kura..._  Naruto started mentally.

_Where did the Mistress thing go?_ he swore he could see her smirk.

_That's not a funny matter Kura! It was my father who died! You should have told me the Yondaime was my father!_ He rebuked her.

_Hey! I did say sorry for the Yondaime yesterday_ , she replied for her defense.

_I thought it was a common thing to do for our hero!_

_He is not my hero!_ Naruto noted she particularly stressed 'my hero'. _I would not say sorry if the man was not close to you in one way or another. You could have deduced it by yourself._

Naruto stopped to argue with her. Her alien logic sometimes only confused him more than he already was.

Hiruzen asked a bit worried: "Are you okay Naruto? I expected you to react in a more... expressive manner"

Naruto shook his head. "I am still processing the information. How did the others find out?"

Hiruzen exhaled some fumes again before he explained: "They linked it your physical appearance with the fact an ANBU was protecting you, and the rumors the Yondaime had in fact a son spread like fire. I suppose the information already leaked past the Fire country."

"It already did," Tiger confirmed. "I spotted five spies from Iwa who instantly sent bird messages, I intercepted the messages and proceeded to take care of them."

Hiruzen glared at him intensively. "What did you do to them?"

"I sang to them a lullaby to make their sleep better," Tiger said annoyed.

"Facts, Tiger!" Hiruzen required equally annoyed.

"I killed them of course by properly beheading them." The operative continued in a robotic tone.

Hiruzen sighted again and felt suddenly very tired. "I would like you to use a less definite solution next time you take care of a spy. They may have useful information. You can play with them as long as you want after we get those information."

"I despise spies. And I despise Iwa spies even more." Hiruzen scratched his half-bald head before his reluctant operative.

All the affair started to give Naruto a headache. If people died only because they communicated such benign information, he started to realize the true nature of a ninja.

"I hope they will not declare war to us for that," Hiruzen evaluated.

"Release me from my oath, and I will take care of them if they do." Tiger offered.

Hiruzen shook his head. "You will not have the easy way out with me, Tiger. You are not like an evil djinn I can release one time to make a wish comes true and be done with it. You are Konoha property."

"As you seem fit, my master..." The operative bowed.

Naruto started to have difficulties to follow the conversation between the two. Naruto noted that Miss Bird and her twins also showed signs that they were as confused as him, so the fact reassured him a bit.

Hiruzen finally turned his stare to Naruto. "To come back to your case Naruto, the Yondaime was known to have caused great war feats during the last war. For Konoha, he may be a Hero, but he's seen as a demon from the outside. For this reason, your life is endangered now the secret concerning your identity has been revealed to the world."

Naruto laughed. "It is okay, Grampa, I always lived in danger."

Hiruzen shook his head. "Drunk civilian were never a danger for you Naruto. You never once were in danger before, I was assured of that. But the situation is now different. And I am afraid even as skilled as Tiger is, it will be impossible for him to protect you from all the dangers concerning you. It means you have to extra careful to what you eat everyday. You will now only eat the food that either comes from me, or Tiger will bring to you. To check if Tiger identity is not compromised, you will have to make a password between you too as a extra measure of security. You will always, I mean always have someone by your side permanently from my choice. It could be Tiger or Cockatoo as you deem fit, both are really skilled for the job."

"I prefer Miss Bird," Naruto said without hesitation.

_Hey!_  Kurama protested inside of his head.

Naruto chose to ignore her. He felt he would end up crazy if he stayed with Tiger one full day.

Hiruzen nodded. "So Cockatoo, be it."

The woman ran to Naruto and hugged him between her breast so tightly that he could barely breathe. "I knew from the beginning you would choose me, cutie!"

Naruto already started to regret his choice.

_You reap what you sow!_  Kurama exclaimed in a pout.

"Whatever," Naruto said as he pushed back the overwhelming woman. "Anything else Grampa?"

"Yes. I heard you have started to read a book about Genjutsu. Can I ask you why?"

His Grampa was really aware of everything he did. Kurama was true and she said he always had eyes on him.

"I think it is a very interesting art, that has his uses. I only started to become interested in it recently, so I do not know where I will be able to go with it."

Hiruzen smiled to him. "It is original from you Naruto, and I will not hide you it will be extremely difficult for you, as it requires perfect chakra control. It will take you years to become proficient in that art."

_No worries old man, I'll help him_ , Naruto heard Kurama say inside his mind.

"But well, if you are really motivated to learn, I can only command you that. You are still at an age you have all time for that. As you will grow up and have more responsibility, you will have less time to delve into subjects that truly interest you. Do you want I grab you a mentor to accelerate your training?"

_Hell yes!_  Kurama shouted happily.

"If it does not bother you, Grampa," Naruto replied politely. Even if he was boiling inside.

Hiruzen chuckled. "Is Tiger okay for you?"

"No." Naruto and Tiger said at this time.

The old man scratched his beard. "Hmm... Well, he is the more skilled person I know in Genjutsu, so..."

"I can teach him if you want, my master!" Cockatoo happily intervened.

But Hiruzen shook his head. "You are quite talented in Genjutsu, but you are not an expert like Tiger. Maybe an Uchiha," Hiruzen stared at both Tiger and Naruto. "But really, it would really arrange me if it you can fit each other."

_Tiger is not that bad actually,_  Kurama commented.

Naruto rolled his eyes.

_This guy's negativity on everything is oppressive like hell._

_Maybe if you knew him more, you would like him._

Naruto then sighted. He could definitely not argue with Kurama "It is fine, for me."

Hiruzen turned to the stubborn operative: "And are you fine with that, Tiger?"

"No," the man replied again, annoyed.

Hiruzen frowned. "Tiger, it is an order."

"Of course, my master..." Tiger bowed and said in a robotic tone.

Naruto already started to imagine the lessons with this man. Naruto was certain Tiger was knowledgeable but he still doubted about his ability to teach him.

"Now Naruto we dealt with that matter, we also have to move you elsewhere. For a matter of security, you will live inside Tiger's house."

"What?!" Naruto protested. The teaching then that?

"Your home is too hard to defend Naruto, and it is known to a lot of persons, and nobody knows excepted me know where Tiger lives. Thus, you will not be disturbed by restless invitations from other clans if they do not know where to send their letters to begin with."

"Is it an order again, my master?" Tiger asked, extremely annoyed this time. Naruto could rank Tiger annoyance nine out of ten at this moment.

"Yes, it is an order."

"I will do as you wish, my master..." Tiger bowed again but Naruto could tell that the man was utterly outraged.

Hiruzen turned to the boy.

"And Naruto, one last thing before you leave. Always mind that your relationships with the other persons will now have a political weight. You are the son of the Yondaime, and just for that, people will want to know you and to approach you, not because they are personally interested but because of the leverage you may bring for them over me. All the clan kids were probably told to follow you closely. I am sure you are already aware of that."

Naruto nodded. Sasuke had been a prime example of that. Though he did not dislike the boy, he was not really fond of him either.

"And Naruto, last thing. Have a good night," Hiruzen finished with a smile. Naruto came close to him and hugged him. "Have a good night, Grampa."

Naruto returned to Tiger. The man's hair seemed to be more agitated than usual, and the boy could not read his expression at all behind the mask. Tiger put a hand on his shoulder, and they disappeared in a yellow flash.

Hiruzen dropped his pipe on his desk and closed his eyes.

"He really matured a lot in one week," Ara commented as she went behind the Sandaime to rub his shoulder delicately.

"Yes, but I am afraid he has no choice to be mature to fight the ordeals that awaits him."

Cockatoo laid her back on the window as she said: "Do not worry, I will protect him during the day, and Tiger is with him during the night, and Ara is here to send our reports to you. You will not always be with him, dear master."

"Yes, kids grow up too fast those last days."

Hiruzen's smile was bittersweet.

* * *

Naruto almost hit his head against the roof when he passed through a small door. It had been already two hundred meters he had followed Tiger thought the darkness, and Naruto almost fell many times if it was not for Tiger preventing him anytime. Naruto had no idea where he was, but he could smell the leaves and a air purer than was he used in the city.

"Do we arrive soon?", he asked to his guardian. The man grumbled him back. "Soon."

And two minutes later, they were before a dead-end. Tiger put a hand on the wall and muttered two words:

"Shikki Fujin"

Green glyphes appeared on the wall, illuminating the place, and Naruto could finally see he was inside a sort of a giant dome. The wall moved to the right without a sound and revealed a chamber lit in a dim light. Tiger invited Naruto to come in, and as he entered, the wall closed behind him in few seconds.

"You can now speak as much as you want, nobody will be able to hear you from here," Tiger informed him as he dropped his Katana on a wood furniture.

Naruto observed the place which was now his home. It was really spacious. Naruto estimated the livingroom alone was at least twice as big as his flat. There were many open doors that leaded to many bedrooms, one kitchen and two living rooms. Naruto explored the place and counted there were at least ten rooms, that were as big as his living room. In one of the bedrooms, he could some luggage on a bed. When Naruto came back to the main room, he lifted his eyes to the roof, he remarked he could see the stars.

"Are we outdoor?" Naruto asked without understanding. When he came back, Tiger had already removed his armor and put it in a washing machine. Naruto could see the man's complicated tattoos all over his body — and when they were no weird tattoos, there were scars instead. Sometimes, the scars were hidden beneath the tattoos and the tattoos beneath the scars. Naruto could see a discoloration on a part of his skin, that climbed up to his neck and disappeared under the mask. The blond hair of the man were freely flowing down his shoulders. The man removed his pants to put it in the washing machine and now Naruto noted he even had tattoos on his legs.

The man stood up and went to the unique bathroom of the "house".

"I take my shower first, and you go after me kiddo. I had already moved all your clothes and toys here, and your books as well. Do not touch a thing until I come back." Then the man closed the door, and Naruto could hear the water drops on the ground. Naruto picked up his own clothes. He smiled when he saw he even brought him his towel as well as his toothbrush.

Naruto then went to the living room, removed his clothes that he put on a bag, and enveloped himself in a tower. He was not cold even without his clothe off, the temperature seemed to be stable around 24° Celcius everywhere in this place. Naruto sat at a table and sighted. He would not be able to see Kura anytime soon now he was there. His eyes wandered and he finally realized that there were even bookshelves than in the Academy's library.

Curious, Naruto still in his towel explored the long corridors of shelves. He noted it was ranged by categories, but the books only had a link with ninjas. Shuriken trowing techniques, Chakra channeling, Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, Genjutsu, Fuinjutsu, Kenjutsu and even some arts that Naruto never heard like summoning and other alluring tittle like forbidden jutsus. There were also lore books, about spying and forensics techniques, healing jutsus and many other stuffs. Naruto did not even explored half of the shelves that he started to feel dizzy at the amount of information Tiger had stocked in there.

"Kiddo, your turn," an annoyed voice Naruto knew pretty well said.

"Alright!" Naruto ran to the bathroom. On the way, he noted Tiger wore the exact copy of the blue pants and white shirt he had worn all the day, excerpt they were clean this time. Naruto stepped into the bathroom, dropped his clothes and his towel on the unique wood furniture of the room and closed the door. As he did, water instantly dropped from the sky as if it rained. Refreshing, but not cold, he felt his muscles relaxing. He noted that it was raining everywhere excerpt above the place where he put his clothes. He then took out a new soap that was disposed on the furniture with his name on it, and cleaned himself of all the filth of the day.

When he finished, he opened the door to ask how to stop the rain from falling, but it had already stopped when he opened the door. Naruto did not understand a thing excerpt it was really practical, and he dressed up in his nightclothes. He then searched for Tiger, but he was nowhere to be found. He explored the rooms and saw he was laid on a bed, in the darkness. Naruto wished him a good night but seeing he did not reply, Naruto just went to his own bedroom, who was at the opposite of Tiger's.

Naruto laid himself on the bed and closed his eyes.

_Can we talk?_

_No information. Dangerous._

Her message was cryptic but he understood he would have to wait. It was certainly wiser that way. He had no idea what time it was, but he felt so tired that at the end, he just slept without reading one page of his book.

Unbeknownst to him, the dragon observed every gestures he did, and every thoughts he had.

Because the shadows never slept in Konoha.

* * *

**X**

* * *

_**Perfection did have a name, but it was not a name he could utter.** _


	9. War Games, pt4

**X**

* * *

When Naruto woke up, he felt completely disoriented. He tried to insert his feet inside his usual slippers, but remembered that he had been moved to Tiger's house, and he had not unpacked his luggage yet. He unwrapped his alarm clock for one of his bags, and noticed it was only three in the morning. Naruto went back to his bed, trying to sleep, but it had no uses as he was not tired. Kurama could not communicate with him for  _reasons_ , and Naruto started to be really bored. He decided to go the living room to read his book but saw Tiger awake. The man was seated on a sofa disposed before a desk.

Naruto then remarked something really weird. Above the desk, a pen was flying and was writing some words on a blank paper by itself. Naruto approached to the desk, curious about what the pen wrote. He saw the worst kind of technical jargon he had ever seen in his life. Each words was horribly complicated, and the sentences that patched them up were even more incomprehensible. Naruto only recognized the words "energy" and "illusion". The document was divided by tittles like "theorems", "corollary", "proposition", "proof" with a sequential numbers like "1125" or with letters in brackets "(iii)". " _Non-degenerate cubic rings R can be embedded into one of two possible ring structures on..._ " was typically the kind of gibberish he read and it was one of the sole sentences that vaguely made sense to him.

After thirty seconds, he noted the pen stopped to write, and went back to its inkwell by itself. Naruto noted there was four similar inkwells on the desk. Naruto turned his gaze to Tiger, and noted he could see his blue eyes through the mask hole, the kind of faded blue that was devoid of life.

"What do you want, kiddo?" the man required, faintly annoyed.

Naruto decided at this point to evaluate the man's feelings through a measure he called "Tiger's Annoyance Meter". For now, Naruto estimated it was only two out of ten, so he was probably still in safe zone. From what he already saw from him, Naruto supposed two things about the man; Tiger did not like to answer questions and Tiger hated to answer stupid questions. After all, he did kill five persons because they had asked stupid questions. As Tiger was certainly more intelligent that he was, Naruto had always to think twice before asking his queries to him. So, he had to assume some facts and elapse some steps of reasoning if he wanted to hold a conversation with the man.

"Why do you make the pen write what you want?" Naruto supposed the pen was only a tool.

Tiger replied, a bit annoyed: "It's been long since I stopped writting by myself. It was tiring, slow, and I thought faster that I could write, and I could not develop simultaneous reasoning that way, and some topics require parallel thoughts processing. Implementing a mental link between me and the pens took me a while, but I earned so much more time after. It was well worth it."

Three out of ten on TAM (Tiger's Annoyance Meter).

From what he just said, Naruto guessed the man had written a lot of books. Naruto held his book on his hands, and read  _"Genjutsu for Dummies by Tonima"_ , Naruto then walked through the different bookshelves, and tried to see how many times the name Tonima emerged from the books. Naruto could say roughly fifty percent of the books on the library included this same name.

Naruto also remembered the first time Miss Bird went to visit him with her twin. They searched for Tiger and called him Agent T: T like Tiger, but also T like Tonima. The coincidence was way too big. He also noted some shelves were half-emptied, and generally concerned the books that were not yet sorted into types. Naruto opened one of them, and found the same kind of gibberish that the pen of Tiger was previously writing. He also noted that all the books on those shelves were from this Tonima. If Tiger was his code name, it made sense Tonima was his pen name.

Naruto went back to Tonima, and asked him: "Was it you who put your books in my house?"

The man shook his head as he replied in the most neutral tone Naruto had ever heard from him: "As the Sandaime knew I was writing a lot of books, he ordered me to write for you some that would be understandable for a kid." He pointed the book Naruto was holding. "Actually, I originally thought you would never read them, but it seems you were not a lost cause after all. The other books on your shelves were either mine or the Academy's basics."

Zero out of ten on TAM, success!

Naruto sighted. He had always had all the knowledge he wanted. Maybe his past-self was so afraid of everything that he could not learn anything.

"Will you really teach me the Genjutsu arts?" Naruto finally asked.

The man lifted his hand in air lazily. "My oath obliges me to obey, so I will teach you the best that I can," he said in a robotic tone.

Naruto now understood Tiger a bit more. As long as his 'oath' was involved, the man automatically replied in a robotic tone, else, it was his annoyed one.

"Where do we start?" Naruto questioned.

The man shrugged before he required. "What have you read from your book?"

Naruto blushed "I only read the abstract."

The man approached his hand to Naruto head. He opened his palm before the kid's face and lifted up his index finger, right before his nose.

"We'll then start with the first practical case of the book." Above his finger, a tiny sphere of light appeared. Naruto was fascinated by the blue reflection on Tiger's gloved finger. It looked like a ladybug flying in the night. Tiger explained: "The goal of this exercise is to get you used to project your chakra outside of your body in one precise point. It requires Chakra Mastery grade C, low chuunin, high genin level."

Naruto eyes widened. "But I am only a student! And I only started the Academy a month ago." The light sphere disappeared.

The man rebuked him annoyed: "Suck to be you, I give you one week to succeed. Else, I will consider you unfit to learn Genjutsu and my oath will no longer require me to teach you."

"You are unfair" Naruto complained in a pout, his arms crossed.

Tiger shrugged again. "I am not the one who asked to be taught. Figure it out on your own, kiddo. I normally give one day for this kind of exercise, but given your circumstances, one week seems fair to me."

"Your oath commands you to teach me!" Naruto firmly declared.

Tiger's voice was rough: "And I did. And now, you are just begging for my attention. My oath has nothing to do with disrespectful brats. Now leave me alone, I was not ordered to babysit you."

This time, the tone was final and Tiger waved the boy return to his bedroom without even looking at him. Naruto stomped the ground as he went away, wanting for him to react, but Tiger said nothing else.

When Naruto returned to his room, he jumped on his bed and dived his head in his cushions.

"Figure out on your own kiddo," He mimicked sarcastically. "Stupid, jerk, evil Mister Tiger!"

He sighted. He was aware that his childish behavior would not lead him anywhere, but still, he could not help but feeling frustrated.

He decided it was better to sleep. He would ask for Kurama some hints when he would be out.

* * *

"Wake up, kiddo,"

Some droll fell from his chin and dropped on the cushion.

"Wake up, kiddo," the annoyed voice said again.

Naruto's jaw hurt him so much that it forced him to wake up. He put a hand on his jaw and it was so warm that it was burning.

"You slapped me!" Naruto cried, holding the left side of his face.

"Late kiddo deserves to be punished. You forgot to set up your alarm clock. I called you three times, and you did not wake up. If you do not want it to happen again, do not make waste my time. I am not your mother. Now get up, your first lesson starts in ten minutes." Tiger summarized and he went out of his room.

"Jerk!" Naruto pouted. He dressed up quickly, ignoring the unpleasant feeling on his face.

Two minutes later, Naruto had everything prepared. When he entered the living room, Naruto noted he was not hungry, despite he did not eat yesterday night. The man had already opened the wall-door-thing and he waited Naruto to come out. When he did, the wall closed behind him in a muffled sound and the green glyphs disappeared. It was supposed to be eight in the morning, but the darkness still stayed the same in this place. Naruto felt a hand on his shoulder, and they suddenly were inside the familiar closet.

Tiger whispered into his ear: "The password is: The Fox is a lie."

Naruto froze for one second.

Tiger then opened the locker, and Naruto could see Miss Bird who was awaiting them in the changing room.

"Hello, cutie, how had been your night?"

Tiger pushed Naruto unto Cockatoo, who caught the boy in her arms.

"Take care of the kiddo while I deal with the spies."

She nodded and Tiger flashed away. Naruto pushed the white-haired woman away now the other man was gone.

"Tiger is really moody," Naruto summed up. Miss Bird nodded with a sight: "Such a waste. Well, cutie, your course starts in five minutes, you should hurry!"

Naruto stared at her, blushing. "Why would my friends think if you constantly are with me, holding my hand?"

"May I show you my power then!"

Her image blurred out of reality, as if her existence had been completely erased of the world.

"You can become invisible!" He exclaimed, startled.

The woman laughed. And he suddenly felt her hand releasing him.

"Allright, now I will follow you everywhere you go. Act is if I am not here."

It was something Naruto was particularly proficient at. When he started to walk, a voice resonated in his mind.

_Naruto, now we are at the Academy and Tiger is no longer nearby, we can communicate. Act casually, okay?_

_I am listening_ , the blond boy thought.

 _I must say we are lucky that we have no longer have to search for a teacher or books to learn. I think Tiger's house may contain every books in the world concerning ninja arts. And yet, this access to knowledge is a double edged sword. One mistake and we can disappear forever. I have no idea what kind of seals he put inside of his house, but I was really scared, and I assure you, very few things make me afraid. You cannot see it Naruto because you do not feel Chakra like I do but the whole house is like a completely separated dimension. When we were there, we were neither dead, or alive. And I am an immortal being Naruto, I am supposed_ _not_   _to fear death. Naruto, you will under any circumstance try to talk with me when you are in this place._

 _Understood,_  he replied. He then realized he was already before the classroom. The door on the point to close, but he arrived just in time. When he entered, all eyes were on him. Of course, as he was now officially "the Yondaime son", people started to get interesting with him. But he did not prevent him to sit next to Shikamaru and Choji who were his closest friends. Sasuke was just in the row before him and Sakura and Ino behind him.

Naruto wondered if Miss Bird managed to enter the room, but when he opened his textbook, he saw a smiley drawn that looked like (^_^)(b).

The course this time was about Chakra Channeling. The hourly volume of this course in the year was roughly one hundred hours. The thirty first hours of the course were dedicated to theory. They already learned about where the Chakra Nodes were in the human body precisely, when in which order to activate the nodes to channel different kinds of Ninjutsu.

They also learned the conversion process between food you eat transformed into molecules that went in the blood, molecules that went after to the nodes to fill them up. Kurama whispered him this course could roughly apply to him since he was a Jinchuuriki. She also explained him that the Uzumaki had a fast metabolism; they ate a lot, which enable them to have larger nodes. Hopefully, they nearly reached the end of the theory part and they would soon get to the practice.

Naruto then asked if Kurama she knew how to do Tiger's exercise. She told him it was quite easy to it for her and she could to show him how to do it, but she needed to assume the control of his body and she could only do it if she was sure there were no eyes on them.

When he refocused on the course, he saw on his textbook the sentence "you do not take notes?", he used a pen of a different color to answer with "I have Tiger's books at home". Miss Bird draw the same smiley as previously. He really liked Miss Bird contrary to Tiger, she was the complete opposite of him. She was easy going and the man was cold when he was not a complete lunatic.

The following class was about the Taijutsu, his favorite course. Naruto had always been the sportive type, running everything. The first courses were about how to stretch their muscles, and how to develop their muscles when they will grow. It was a lot about what kind of food they should eat, and what kind of exercise they should do.

Generally, they started the course with a fifteen minutes of warming, then alternated between push-up sit-ups, squats and finally, very little about the fighting style. During the course, they had to wear a proper uniform, that was a karategi most of the time.

The teacher had affirmed the true course about Taijutsu only started in the second semester, just following the first graduation session of the year. The teacher helped those who had the most difficulties, and was often on Sakura's side.

But this time, at the middle of the course, after their warming-up, Sasuke approached to Naruto with a proposition: "Do you want to spar with me?"

Naruto stood up and shook hands with him without a thought. He always wanted to fight him, as he was the best of the class. Naruto actually knew Sasuke had his clan training before coming to the Academy but he was confident he could hold his ground against him.

The teacher did not forbid the spar as long as it was done by the rules; if one student conceded, fell or was hurt, the match had to stop.

They went to the tatamis. A lot of students came to participate to witness the match. Among them, there were even second year students who came spectating, the third year students were not there as they had to prepare for their graduation exam. Sasuke started to get into his stance: he stood with feet sightly sightly apart, one in front and behind, with two fists near his body. Naruto never truly had a proper stance, and always tried to adapt. He just stood, his legs bent and one hand open toward Sasuke, inviting him to come.

Sasuke smiled, persuaded to have finally found a worthy opponent in this class.

With the lightning speed, at least to Naruto's point of view, Sasuke punched him in the face. The strength of the impact was so strong, it resonated through the room and Naruto was thrown one meter back as he fell on his back. Sasuke started to panic, as he expected him to defend himself, but Naruto stood up just after, spit a tooth and smiled fondly to Sasuke as he invited him to retake his stance. Sasuke looked at him a bit worried as he saw blood dropping from the mouth of the blond but stood in the same position as before.

Naruto breathed deeply as he closed his eyes.

_Kurama, can you lend me a hand?_

_That's going too far, Naruto. Using my powers for a spar..._

_Come on Kura, you know it is important for my reputation. As the Yondaime's son, I cannot afford to get one-sided. It was you who told me to build relationship, and I think Sasuke needs someone who can be at least as strong as him in a fight. He's kinda lonely in his own way. I remember you agreed for I to accept the spar._

_I did not think you'd want to tap unto my energy._

_Just a little bit. Please Kura..._

Kurama sighted and infused the smallest amount of energy she could afford through his Chakra nodes. A Hyuuga with a Byukagan activated would have seen the body of the blond sparking in fire. Naruto exhaled as he suddenly felt invigorated with an intoxicating energy. His tooth regrew, his muscles strengthened, and when he opened his eyes, their cerulean blue showed now a shade of purplish red. His blond hair seemed to have its own life as it wiggled every time he moved his head.

Everybody was looking at Naruto oddly, wondering why he just stood still for five full seconds in a completely defenseless stance. Naruto then finally retook his posture, and incited Sasuke to come to him again. Sasuke looked at him dubious and thought it was again one of the blond's games. But as the second heir of the Uchiha, he could not back up a challenge.

Sasuke dashed forward with the intent to punch the blond through the gut, but this one took a step to the right, and as a result, Sasuke had his back exposed to him. Yet, profiting to his momentum, the raven-haired boy slid on the smooth surface and in one turn, sent a high kick to Naruto head, that Naruto blocked with his forearm. Naruto then went for his side with the edge of his hand, but Sasuke dashed with his remaining foot on the ground. Sasuke in air, completely twisted, directed a descending punch to Naruto face, but this blond just bent backward lifted his legs in turn to only stand on his hands as the other boy crashed on the ground and in a roll, stood again in his usual stance. Naruto bent his arms to eject himself in air and fall back on his foot.

The boy shouted "again, again, again!". But for the girls, there were clearly two sides in the crowd as they either shouted "Uchiha, Uchiha, Uchiha!" or "Namikaze, Namimakze, Namikaze!". The second years could not believe what they were seeing; first years who were better than most third years despite they only entered one month ago and only had the stretching exercises so far.

Naruto and Sasuke both started to sweat profusely. Even the teacher finally came as the referee.

"Hajime!" He shouted to give the head-start.

This time, it was Naruto who threw himself to Sasuke. He went with a kick to the groin, that Sasuke deflected with his palm and applied a counter to his jugular, Naruto bent himself back, and applied a second kick to Sasuke head, his face facing the tatamis. Sasuke had to step back once, which enabled Naruto to roll back and stood with one knee on the ground. Sasuke dashed to him with his fist forward and Naruto did the same as he ejected himself toward the other. Their fist collided in a thud, and both the boy exchanged then a violent series of punch and kicks.

 _Left, right, down, up!_  Kurama shouted to Naruto inside of his head.

Their fight looked like a dance, as they tested each other strength and weakness. Naruto was more at ease with his kicks when Sasuke had the high-ground on the fists. Naruto kicked his knee's opponent, but Sasuke got his wrist joint. In a rotating kick, Naruto brushed Sasuke shoulder blade but the boy replied with a punch on the blond lungs. Consequently, Naruto rolled back, and fell on the ground, completely breathless.

The teacher stopped the match and went to Naruto. This one miraculously seemed to take back his breath, despite having gotten hit on the ribs. Even Sasuke had some bruises all over his body, but nothing tragic, as he would probably recover in two days. Naruto with a smiled joined his fists in a respectful bow, and Sasuke did the same.

The crowd was completely on fire as they completely circled, asking where they taught how to fight. The boys blushed, for different reasons, Sasuke because he considered himself unworthy of such praises compared to his brother and Naruto because he cheated a bit as he asked help from Kurama and despite of that still lost. Naruto finally managed to join Sasuke to congratulate him, and Sasuke thanked him to have accepted the spar. Their fists met in a friendly "poc". Sasuke asked if Naruto wanted to train more regularly with him, but when Kurama shouted in his head that it would be without her this time, he had to politely decline.

After this course, Sasuke and Naruto went together for lunch, and the other students left them, not wanting to disturb the meeting. Girls started to dream about a Yaoi adventure between the two, while the majority of the boys still envisioned the fight that had previously happened. They both sat in a side of the school playground which consisted in a small verdant hill.

Sasuke had his own bento prepared by his mother this morning, while Naruto had nothing to eat. So he thought, until he checked the contents of his bags and saw the small message inside: "The Fox is a lie". Tiger really had an odd sense of humors. Naruto shredded the paper and saw beneath his meal which consisted only with noddle. Naruto really considered the man should learn how to cook something else, but it was better than nothing so he still ate the pasta.

"So Sasuke, tell me more about your brother," Naruto proposed as he saw him the day before escorting Sasuke at home.

"He's the best. You cannot believe it! He managed to pass the Chuunin exams alone at ten!" Sasuke shouted feverishly.

"Really?" Naruto said with a smile, even if in fact, he did not realize the incredible feat it was.

"He entered the ANBU at eleven! Did I say he graduated at eight, only one year after he entered the Academy?"

"That sounds awesome!" Naruto shouted in turn, even if he felt embarassed before the shining eyes of the other boy.

"And Naruto, will you participate in the War Games?" Sasuke asked, changing suddenly the subject, managing to throw Naruto off-guard. Sasuke continued vividly. "You have only three days left, and all clan kids already registered, as a quarter of the civilian students. You are the only left among us who did not register."

Naruto laughed awkwardly: "Really? I guess I will have to, hahaha!"

 _Yes, Naruto, it is time for us to step into the Games_ , Kurama concluded.

* * *

Late in the afternoon, after Naruto registered himself for the War Games, and that everybody as yesterday went home, with only Naruto staying. Iruka waved him goodbye as he also left. The night, only Naruto remained at the Academy. Miss bird then appeared in front him, finally.

"It was a funny spar cutie, I did not know you were that good. Was it your first fight?" She asked with a smile in her voice.

Naruto always thought her questions tricky, as he knew everything he said would be reported and noted for his Grampa but he felt obliged to respond.

"Yes, I kinda went with the flow, haha!"

The operative nodded.

"You did not feel something different during the fight?"

Naruto and Kurama had made up an explanation for this kind of questions:

"I did feel I was faster than usual but I think it may be the adrenaline, I just learnt that today, haha!"

And hopefully for him, he really did. He saw her nod again. "Yeah, probably cutie," she finished in a laugh.

But then, her mask suddenly turned toward the Academy entrance and she stopped laughing.

Naruto instantly felt all his body surrounded by the woman who crouched on him.

"Miss Bird?" But she whispered him to stay quiet. Naruto tried to push her away as he could not breathe in her breasts but she forced him to stay like this, her arms completely encircling his head.

Then, some kind of weird Mist invaded the Academy. Naruto and Miss Bird were in the middle of the schoolyards. Naruto felt some kind of sinister winds traversing them, and Naruto in the corner of his eyes through Cockatoo's arms men in black dashing and dashing and dashing through the playground and went inside the building where Naruto was supposed to rejoin Tiger.

Naruto widened his eyes in understanding. His Grampa warned him about the danger but he did not get it was so sudden. But did not get why they did not see them?

 _Remember her ability Naruto,_  Kurama deduced.  _She may be able to share it in close contact. It was maybe why she used herself to hug you, in case she had to it in a perilous situation and that she could activate her power instantly on you._

Naruto really wondered if every actions of his guardians had a double-meaning, if not a triple meaning for him.

Naruto then felt something on his shoulder, like a ladybug, similar to the light sphere that Tiger showed to him this morning. When he focused on the light, he could swear he saw the mask of Miss Bird's twin, Ara.

"Mission completed," Naruto heard Miss Bird whisper next to him. "Naruto is secured. You can start the operation  _Ac-Pm8_."

Through the light, Naruto could see Ara nod and it was like he suddenly heard his Grampa's voice from very afar even if it came in fact from the small sphere.

"Perfect! Now, let's show them how Konoha shinobi fight!"

Suddenly, a lot and a lot of Konoha ANBU suddenly emerged from the ground around them. There was at least fifty, if not one hundred of them. Among them, Naruto recognized Sasuke's brother by the hair and his slim body as he passed next to them. Through his mask, Naruto saw Sasuke's older brother weird eye; three black sickles twirling around a black iris on red font.

A quarter of the ANBU suddenly went in the front, inside the building, another quarter seemed to create a sort of blue web that surrounded completely the academy. Another quarter faded in the shadows, as the other stayed around Miss Bird and Naruto. The boy only heard the cries of men coming from the building that the men in black infiltrated.

The operation lasted only three minutes that it had already ended.

* * *

"Fucking Leaf Ninja" A bulky man in black muttered as he walked through the streets, holding his wounded arm. "Completely misleading us into a trap. Fuck, I should have known it was too easy to catch the boy alone. How did it come he suddenly vanished from sight?"

He hid himself when some Leaf operative dashed roofs to roofs above his head. The man had a smirk. "If you think you can catch me, retards!" He then dived into a sewer drain. He sorted out a scroll from his shirt and checked the plan. If he was not wrong, he had to go to south.

He followed the tick orange water than ran though the brick wall. He patched up in twenty second his shoulder, and started to run toward the exit of the village. After one minute, he grinned as he saw the end of the tunnel. He got out, and could see the blue sky illuminated by the full moon.

But suddenly, he felt a presence that was behind a tree.

"Who are you! Show yourself!" The man in black ordered as he was on the point of casting an earthquake jutsu.

He then saw one ANBU with a tiger mask revealing himself under the moonlight. He could finally see the tern blond hair of the operative, as the dead blue eyes were set on him.

"Koetsu Kanoda," The ANBU started to say. The man in black flinched. "Missing-nin of Iwa. Class A+, high-tier Jounin. Bounty: 50000 ryo. Dual elemental affinities: Earth, Fire. Multiple notorious kills to his name, sacking civilian villages and attacking merchant caravans. In fact, his desertion and his crimes serve only to hide his undercover mission S-Class, which is to spy the other villages. End of File."

Koetsu smirked to the operative. "I see you did your homework. Now you know who I am, just get the fuck out my way if you do not want to die!" His hands were already crackling in energy.

The ANBU just remained immobile as he put one arm under another. Under his sleeves, the arms as his legs and his body glowed in a green, sinister light.

"Releasing Restriction Seal level 3. Situation C. Ability restrictions lifted for limited use until the target has been rendered sealed or de—."

A fist made of stone broke the operative's neck as he fell to the ground.

"Who the fuck was that weirdo?" Koetsu sighted. "Well, time to go."

Wait, the moment he was on the point to run back to his country, the clearing was suddenly bathed in a green mist. Feeling a chill in his spin, the man lifted his eyes to the sky and saw the moon was replaced by a human skull that cried crimson tears. Red drops started to fall from the sky, as if it rained blood.

The man in black did the mudra to release the genjutsu on him, but even as he rinsed and repeated multiple times, the weird events continued to appear one after the others. The grass at his feet started to dry up and turning yellow then black. Bats came out from nearby caves, and flew around him, displaying eyes pointing to his direction.

"The fuck is that!" Koetsu screamed as he conjured his earth blessing skill and made molten barrier around him. The ground itself cracked up and he threw the molten rocks to every absurd things that came to him. Zombies, death knights on bones horses circled him completely, laughing before his futile resistance.

The corpse of the operative suddenly glowed a green light, and started to stand up, despite having his spine destroyed. The broken mask revealed a skull whose eyes shined a dark blue hue. Only the bone of his nose remained on the face that had no ear and no lisp. The corpse of the ANBU started to walk toward the ninja whose molten wall had been completely covered by carbonized bodies. This impossible creature from the underworld walked up the mountain of blood and stood one meter away from the man in black, who crouched on the ground, crying in despair.

"Go away fucking monster! You are not human! You are—"

"I, Tiger, sentence you to death."

The man's head jumped up and the environment around them suddenly turned back to normal, showing no signs of the ' _fight_ ', as it had never existed to begin with. Tiger cleaned his Katana with a handkerchief before sheathing it. The beheaded corpse fell on the ground in a thud.

A white firefly that laid on a tree nearby flew to him and put itself on his shoulder.

"Mission completed, target's secured."

He vanished in a yellow flash, letting the white firefly slowly coming back to the Leaf.

* * *

**X**

* * *

_**The Fox is a lie** _


	10. War Games, pt5

**X**

* * *

 

In the middle of the night, a blond woman donning an ANBU uniform with a bird mask was standing next to the Sandaime's desk. Fireflies flew before her eyes in a flurry of luminescent lights. The small dots of brightness started to twirl around her hands before diving into her palms. Her whole body flickered for twenty seconds as if she were immersed in x-rays, before coming back to normal.

Hiruzen was still waiting for her report.

"Operation Ac-Pm8 is a success. All the invaders are either dead or being caught and retained inside separated cells located under our headquarters. Two agents wounded with full recovery in a week's worth of rest. Tiger took care of the instigator. We are still waiting for T&I's full report. Aside from the Jounin of Iwa, our agents recognized the prisoners as mercenaries. Tiger joined Cockatoo to pick up Naruto to bring him to his hideout. The situation is cleared." Ara concluded.

Hiruzen lit his pipe and exhaled the fumes. The bait had worked out well. They had managed to get all the dogs out. "Good job Ara, excluding patrol, relieve all agents from field duty for tonight." The woman nodded and communicated the orders through the fireflies she put on each agent. "You are also permitted to rest, Ara. You have been working non-stop for the past two days. With the situation calm, we should be fine for a month."

She bowed. "As you wish, Master." But she knew he would stay awake through the morning. A Hokage could only afford short breaks. She felt guilty for not being able to better help him.

Dismissed, Ara navigated her way underground from the Kage Tower. ANBU Headquarter nodes linked to important places in the city center like the Tower or the Academy, in addition to each clan territory having one. Ara walked through the corridors and met several other agents who saluted her as she strolled by. Everybody wore a mask so long as they weren't at home. She knew every agent by their codename, and every agent knew who she was. After all, Ara was the only way to report directly to the Hokage when they were on the field.

Her ability was handy; she could create sources of light and could communicate through those sources no matter the distance. The Hokage overused it and it often put a strain on her body as her schedule rarely allowed for rest.

In the changing room, she removed her armor and undressed, putting her filthy clothes in a bag. She enveloped herself in a large towel and went to the laundry room the facility provided, throwing her clothes to wash before walking back to the showers. She was pretty much naked underneath her towel, but there's no real privacy in the ANBU. Between the Hyuuga who could see through everything, the Uchiha who could take a mental picture through their Sharingan when they peeped, the Inuzuka who could smell and recognize your body odors through miles, and the Aburame who could put a bug on you without your consent, there was nothing to be done. Everyone spied on everybody, it wasn't rare to see bets among the agents in which they exchanged information of other agents.

Sometimes, agents had to relieve their stress through sex. So long as no personal feelings were involved, having sex with another agent was perfectly acceptable. Cases of abuse were rare but happened from time to time, and the person guilty of such were generally moved somewhere else with a huge cut in pay. The measure was dissuasive enough, so most of the time, it was only peeping. Psychological healthcare in ANBU was serious business and every ANBU was monitored by a therapist, who was a Yamanaka for the most part. Along with that, every agent was required to visit their doctor every two weeks.

Under the water head, Ara's tense body relaxed. Her blond hair flowed freely on her back, as opposed to her usual braid. The exhaustion in her blue eyes showed from the last few days if the dark lines underneath were anything to go by. Her small nose and slender figure were normally hidden under the uniform and armor, one of which she was still required to wear even though she wasn't supposed to engage in close combat. Her job was essential, though supportive; communication and relaying reports. Occasionally, when the hospital lacked the personnel and her presence was unnecessary in the Hokage office, she was required to act as an extra doctor given her skill in medical ninjutsu, even if she wasn't an expert.

Suddenly, Ara gasped as she felt hands grabbing her breasts from behind, the culprit revealing itself as her undisguised twin, Cockatoo.

"Co'!" Ara rebuked her, pouting. But the smile of the other woman was contagious, and Ara laughed under the ruthless tickling of her twin, "Stop! Stop! I can't breathe Co'!" she fought against the fingers that attacked her sides, but it was futile as she was laid on the ground at the complete mercy of her much stronger twin.

After a while, Cockatoo stopped tickling her, and Ara could finally breathe. Ara lifted her eyes towards her sister, who smiled fondly at her. Cockatoo traced her collarbone with her fingers as she gently stroked Ara's face. Cokatoo's white hair fell down the other woman's ears.

"Father finally released you from duty," she sighed. The Sandaime was not technically their father, nor were they technically twins.

They were the only orphans the Sandaime took under his wing when they were about ten years old. Everything started when Orochimaru, the treacherous snake, started his experimentation on humans. The devious Sannin, to not be discovered, would pick up orphans or hobos from the streets so nobody would question their disappearance. Ara and Cockatoo were among the last ones the Sannin kidnapped before the Sandaime attacked a day later. During their stay in the Snake's dungeon, they were injected with many substances. Both women refrained from remembering the moments spent there.

Ara and Cockatoo didn't know if the substances gave them their abilities or acted as a catalyst to awaken their potential. Either way, the result was Cockatoo being able to make herself invisible and Ara could emit lights to send her thoughts. After Orochimaru fled the village, the Sandaime and the ANBU investigated the hideout, only discovering corpses. The two girls were the only survivors of the gruesome experiments. Hiruzen found them still agonizing in their cells. The Sandaime rescued and healed them, placing them afterward into custody in the ANBU Headquarters to check whether they could pose a threat to Konoha. They were released after a month when the operatives deemed them harmless.

As the girls didn't have a home to return to nor parents to shelter them, they decided to pledge their loyalty to Hiruzen, grateful that he saved them. The Sandaime was a bit reluctant at first, as they were too young to enter Konoha's special forces, but they insisted so much that in the end, Hiruzen accepted their demands as a way for him to redeem himself for what Orochimaru had done. When he asked for their names, they couldn't answer, they'd never known anything else but the streets. They were abandoned at birth and thrown out of the orphanage at six to end up spending their childhood stealing or fencing illicit drugs until Orochimaru picked them up.

Then, Hiruzen decided to call them Ara and Cockatoo, mirroring the idea of them being rare and beautiful birds that came to his doorstep to be tamed. Their loyalty was their cage, their code names were their identity, and their master was the Sandaime. For the first two years, the old man gave them an accelerated formation among the ANBU according to their skill. Cockatoo trained in Taijutsu and Kenjutsu, deciding to pick up a reaper scythe as her favorite weapon. Ara preferred to go through the Ninjutsu courses. Ara and Cockatoo developed a very close relationship, like that of twins, so much so, they now identified themselves as such.

In the end, Cockatoo mostly undertook assassination missions, she became a Taijutsu expert and skilled in Genjutsu, sometimes using her wind affinity to render her scythe deadlier. Ara became a Ninjutsu expert, developing two affinities in wind and fire, along with studying in the medical field. When they were sufficiently trained at around sixteen (they weren't sure of their age), they officially became the Hokage's Shadows, the highest rank in ANBU. While they absolutely loved the man they considered a father, they never did like Konoha much for their upbringing on the streets and the trauma they experienced. Initially, they called the old man "Master" to tease them, but Hiruzen didn't seem to mind, eventually becoming a habit for them.

After they dutifully cleaned each other, they dressed in their casual clothes. Cockatoo wore her white hair short, only reaching her shoulders. Her sleeveless shirt revealed her shoulders and arms but also highlighted her voluptuous chest.

"Anko invited us for an outing. Are you coming?" Cockatoo asked her.

"Why not? It's been a while since we've been to her favorite dango shop," Ara replied as she dried her hair and attached it in a braid.

"Kurenai will probably be there too, let's go," said Cockatoo, putting on her mask.

Fifteen minutes later, at eleven, they found the other two women seated at a table, waving them over. They no longer had their masks on them. A waitress came to check them in and took their orders.

Anko greeted them, "It's been a while, girls. What's up?" she picked at her teeth with a toothpick.

"The last few days were rough for us," Ara sighed, "the Hokage didn't let us rest an hour." She let her head down on the wooden table.

Anko laughed sadistically, "I told you he was a slave driver, one of the many reasons I didn't take the job."

"Anko..." Kurenai scolded.

"What about you? Do you have any juicy news to give us?" Cockatoo asked with a ferocious grin.

Anko shrugged. "Depends. Are you thinking of a man within ANBU? I know all their dick sizes by heart." Ara blushed, but Cockatoo laughed.

The peeping went both ways.

"I am actually interested in someone, but I don't think you know him very well," The white-haired girl commented.

They were then served their plate of ten dangos, and Anko picked one in the midst. Ara glared at her, but she just laughed.

"If you mean Tiger, it's true I have little info on the guy. We only knew he was important when Shikaku Nara decided to come into the old man's office to say that our new blond celebrity could be dangerous, big fucking news in my opinion."

Ara nodded. She had more than a hundred agents to watch, and every three days, someone was hired while another one left. She had seen Tiger in the past, but he never left her with a big enough impression to stand out in her mind.

"What do you know about Tiger?" Ara asked as she picked one dango.

Anko finished her own as she replied, "The guy doesn't live in headquarters for sure, and when I tried looking for his place, I searched everywhere he'd likely be, but I wonder if he lives in Konoha at all. Considering his use of the Hiraishin, it's impossible to trace back. Hell, he could have his residence in one of the Kiri Islands and we'd never know." Anko stopped, she was frustrated that she didn't know an agent's information. "And what do you know about him?"

Cockatoo shrugged. "He's a jerk with Naruto and the Sandaime. I've never heard him say something positive, but the Hokage seems to trust him, so I wonder. Apparently, the Hokage has known him for a long time."

Kurenai crossed her arms. "I heard the Hokage put the Namikaze kid under his care. Is it true? The clans' elder's feathers were ruffled when they heard that the kid was no longer at his usual place."

Ara was already eating another dango. Cockatoo stared at her twin contently, she could finally eat, she tended to skip meals often.

"S-class secret, so we cannot say a thing about that." Ara said as she grabbed a glass of water.

Anko sighed, "You girls are no fun." She switched topics; "What about your recent errand for a boyfriend?" She asked both twins.

Ara looked at Cockatoo who took the lead: "Every time I manage to get one, he leaves me in less than two days."

Anko threw her a wicked grin. "Want me to lend you my whip?" Ara and Kurenai became green.

Cockatoo chuckled. "No, BDSM isn't really my style."

Anko turned to Kurenai, "Why don't you tell them about the guy you like?"

Kurenai blushed.

"Tell us or I'll stalk you every day until you reveal everything." Cockatoo leered at her.

The Yuhi sighed. "Fine, I like Asuma Sarutobi. Happy now?" Kurenai said dejectedly.

Ara feared the worst when Anko turned to her.

"And you? Don't tell me it's the old man." Anko laughed as Ara blushed even more. "No, really?" She feared for the woman.

Fortunately, she shook her head, "No, I haven't noticed a man yet. I don't have the time, actually."

Anko took five sticks from the plate and presented them to the girl, "Listen, I can find you five good men, all handsome and stuff, but you have to swear that you will find some time for yourself. Or else, I'll just ask for every girl in ANBU to go on a strike."

Ara shook her head vividly, her braid jumping on her back. "No, no, please don't."

Anko arched a brow, "Really? I know a lot of men who would love to share their couch with you. Blue eyes, blond hair, big beasts. What do you prefer? Hyuuga, Uchiha or Inuzuka if you prefer the wild ones?"

Ara choked. Her body's inner lights made her seem to be pulsating. Noticing this, Cockatoo went to her rescue with a sheepish grin, "She's not really at ease with that topic, why don't you tell us about you, Anko?"

"Me? Yesterday, I did Kakashi Hatake. The poor boy couldn't hold himself for five minutes."

This time, it was Kurenai who choked. Ara seemed to have calmed down when her twin stroked her head gently.

"If you'll excuse us, Ara hasn't slept for two days and she's really tired, so I'll take her home," said Cockatoo as she carried Ara on her back, the latter was already nodding off. "See ya!" She said and quickly disappeared.

Anko stood up and she shouted at them, "Hey! You owe us a plate of dango!"

But they were already gone.

* * *

That night, Naruto was troubled and couldn't speak to Kurama since they were in a place where they were "neither alive or dead." After they took their shower, Tiger returned to the sofa by his desk while the pen continued to write by itself.

Naruto spoke up next to him, "Mister Tiger?"

The pen stopped.

"What do you want again, kiddo?" the man grunted, annoyed.

"Mister Tiger, when did you kill your first man?" the boy asked.

Tiger sighed and snapped his fingers, the boy suddenly felt himself being seated on his sofa. At the same time, Tiger's own seat pivoted, so the masked man now faced the boy.

"If I answer that, I suppose you'll ask me more questions." Tiger evaluated, irked.

Naruto looked down at his feet. The mask was bent to the right as his head was supported with the palm of his hand.

"Sorry, Mister Tiger. I didn't want to bother you," Naruto muttered.

After he talked with Kurama in the afternoon, he felt ashamed for his behavior the day before.

"To answer your previous question, I would say my first kill was at nine. But then, I was young and stupid."

So, Naruto would have his first kill in less than a year.

"How did you feel?" the kid asked.

The man shrugged, "I can't remember," he simply said.

Naruto looked at him without understanding. How could someone forget their first kill? He wondered if he would be as emotionless when he grows up.

"Really? You didn't feel a thing?" He asked.

This time, the man sounded aggravated, "When I said I can't remember, I did not say I didn't feel a thing. I said I can't remember what the feeling was."

Naruto didn't understand. It was complete nonsense. How could someone recall feeling something but not what it was? He had to think about it carefully, otherwise, Tiger would refuse to answer anything else.

_Think, Naruto! You must think! You aren't stupid!_  His mind scrambled to make sense of it all.

"Is it linked with the tattoos you have on your arms, legs and torso?" Naruto asked randomly.

And the man nodded.

Naruto looked at him dumbfounded. "Is this why you can only answer in either an annoyed or robotic tone?"

The man nodded again, and Naruto felt something akin to dizziness engulfing him.

"Was it someone else that did those tattoos, or did you draw them yourself?"

With every question Naruto asked, the man's blue eyes seemed to brighten up, as if life was breathed back into them.

"No, I did those myself," Tiger spoke after a few moments with a tone that wasn't robotic or annoyed, from what Naruto could identify.

"Why did you do that to yourself?" Naruto inquired, he grew uneasy.

"Because I had to," Tiger finally revealed, his eyes glistening. A lump formed in Naruto's throat seeing the man's unshed tears. It was regret, but it was as if his laments were stolen before he could ever express them, like a festering wound that would open over and over indefinitely without it being able to heal.

"Is there a way to remove the tattoos from your body?" Naruto asked desperately. He didn't know why, but he felt a vital need to help this man.

"My oath forbids it." The man merely said, his robotic tone surfacing once more.

Naruto shook his head. He inflicted those cursed tattoos on himself and now, he couldn't remove them because of his oath? Naruto couldn't figure out how, or why.

"Why does that oath force you to keep those tattoos?" The boy asked.

The man opened his mouth, closed it, then shook his head. The glow of his eyes started to fade, and Naruto felt it was urgent for him to find the answers, or else Tiger would return to his Tiger-self.

Kurama often told him that if he couldn't ask an open question directly, asking many closed questions would help him discern the truth from the lie.

"Was it Grampa who forced you into this oath?"

The man nodded.

"Does the oath force you to keep quiet about its contents?"

The man nodded.

"Is the oath linked with Konoha?"

The man nodded.

Naruto stopped, trying to think about more questions.

"Is it because of the oath that you write so many books?"

The man nodded.

"Why do you write so many books?" Naruto asked.

"Because of my oath," the man stated.

Naruto shook his head, it wasn't a good question. He tried again, "What is your purpose in writing books?"

"To seek the truth."

"Which truth?"

"Achieving immortality without sacrificing the life of other beings."

Naruto looked at him in disbelief. Immortality? The man eyes' glow faded again, and Naruto had to continue asking questions, "Why do you seek immortality?"

The man opened his mouth, closed it, and shook his head.

"Do you seek immortality because of your oath?"

The man nodded.

"Do you seek immortality for yourself or for others?"

The man did not respond.

"Why did Grampa force you into this oath?"

The man opened his mouth. But did not close it instantly. Naruto waited.

"Because I tried to kill myself."

Naruto stopped. He shed tears for this man, a man he couldn't save. It was impossible, it made no sense! The oath is what made him suffer. How could he do that to himself?! How could Grampa condemn this man to an eternity of suffering? The man wouldn't be at peace until the oath is lifted, but at the same time, it's what has kept him alive.

Naruto looked into the man's oddly bright eyes as if his tears had awakened something lingering in the deepest part of the man's being.

"Is the oath related to me?"

The man seemed to hesitate few seconds, before finally nodding.

Naruto's tears could not stop falling.

"Was it because of it that you didn't want me to come here?"

The man nodded.

"Because I awaken something in you that has long since been lost?"

The man nodded.

Naruto tried to wipe his face, but he couldn't stop now, he needed to know. "What am I to you?"

The man opened his mouth, "I am your..." he closed his eyes and stopped. When he opened them again, he looked down at his shaking hands.

"I am the one who put that seal on you."

* * *

"I am the one who put the seal on you." "I am the one who put the seal on you." "I am the one who put the seal on you."

The sentence resonated in his head, again, again, and again. It was like when Kurama told him the seal couldn't stop her from getting out, something along the same kind of sentence. The kind of truth hidden under a pile of hidden truths that were hidden under another pile of lies.

Naruto knew about the recent history of Konoha.

Naruto knew why people hated him since he was a child.

Naruto knew why Kurama was 'sealed' inside of him.

Naruto knew why he looked up to the Yondaime, he'd saved the village by sacrificing his life.

Naruto knew it was because Kurama was forced to attack the village, and as a result, the Yondaime had to seal her inside of him to prevent her from causing even more deaths.

Naruto knew for two days now that  **the Yondaime was, in fact, his father.**

He knew why he suffered as an orphan, his father willingly chose the village over his son's happiness.

And he just learned right now that the Yondaime, who was, in fact, very much alive, stood right in front of him.

And then he remembered what Kura had told him when she revealed her secrets, "When the Yondaime tried to seal me, he didn't have the time to do it completely, as a result, the seal that's supposed to keep me inside of you is imperfect."

When Naruto asked Tiger why he had inflicted the tattoos that prevented him from having feelings, he replied that he had to.

He'd chosen his duty over his son. Naruto also knew he regretted it, but at the same time, he couldn't regret it, the tattoos denied him the right.

His father was alive because the seal had been imperfect, he didn't have the time to complete it.

When he asked why Tiger talked in either an annoyed or robotic tone, it was because of the tattoos.

It was part of the deal that made the seal, and it wasn't complete. Instead of losing his life, he lost his feelings as the price.

Then, his father tried to commit suicide. Was it because he couldn't feel anything else other than annoyance? Was it because of it that his Grampa made him swear to 'serve' Konoha?

His Grampa was the Sandaime, and he couldn't afford to lose a man like his father, the Yondaime.

The Sandaime made an oath to prevent his father from killing himself. His only means to die were to be killed in action or be released from the oath. The Yondaime's mind identified not dying as living forever, and thus, it condemned the Yondaime to seek an answer to live forever due to the oath, provided that it didn't harm another life as the price. That's why he wrote so many books in search of the 'truth' when his oath didn't force him to obey another direct order from his Grampa.

It was why Tiger never slept at night and spent his time writing books, why he felt aggravated when he was disturbed, it was all in the way of accomplishing his duty. It's why Tiger viewed everything so negatively.

And because it was part of his curse, Tiger had been the result of the oath. His father was hidden behind this ruthless persona that didn't feel a thing. If Naruto hated Tiger, he couldn't hate his father.

Because what was left of the Yondaime was just a shell of himself, a shadow hidden behind a shadow of another shadow.

Because the Yondaime was his hero, he also knew his name; Minato Namikaze.

Naruto learned yesterday that by connecting facts, Tiger was agent T, and also Tonima.

Minato and Tonima.

If he shifted the letters a bit, he could have been aware of that.

And yet, his father never said, even in front of him, that Naruto was his son. He no longer had feelings, and he could no longer feel love, thus, the boy had never been his son in his eyes.

Naruto couldn't be his son, not because his father didn't want him, but because Minato couldn't recognize him as his son, the tattoos prevented that.

Seeing his son suffer without being able to feel something is what killed the man, or rather, why the man wanted to kill himself. And now his father had to live because of an oath that prevented him to die, all the while condemning him to eternal suffering.

Naruto wanted to help him. He desperately wanted to help his father, but he couldn't find a way. Freeing his father from the oath would result in his death, and leaving him bounded by it would continue to make him suffer. Suffering or dying was his unique solutions. His father was held captive to an eternal life of misery. Naruto loved his father, and he didn't want the man to die by releasing him of this life.

It was an endless torture.

It was the true enemy.

It was the  **True Prisoner's Dilemma.**


	11. War Games, pt6

* * *

**X**

* * *

Naruto didn't realize how much time he spent lost in thought. The only thing he knew was that Tiger now faced his desk and resumed his previous activity, writing books. The boy also noted that his own tears had dried up, and now contemplated the man before him in a new way. Naruto listened to the steady sound of the pen scribbling on the coarse paper in relentless monotony. Tiger, the Yondaime, probably didn't realize his son was observing his actions nearby.

And Naruto knew why.

His father's oath stripped him of all free will he once had.

Naruto wasn't sure if the man answered his questions, the Sandaime had ordered him, before Naruto even went there, to answer any question if it didn't oppose his oath. Perhaps Naruto managed to awaken something long lost in this man? While Naruto wanted the latter to be true, the former was far more probable.

Naruto understood that had he learned the truth a week ago, he would've cried and shouted at his father for being so unfair and evil and would've harassed him to the point where the man would've just kicked him out of the house. Now, Naruto analyzed everything in a calculating, unyielding manner that would put a Nara to shame. The boy didn't know if it was linked to the fact that his bond with Kurama was stronger than ever, but he could give the thought some merit.

Naruto hadn't spoken a word since the man revealed his secret. He knew, or rather, he supposed that these were the types of secrets that could kill if known, his status as the host of the Kyuubi wouldn't matter. Nobody knew, and none were aware of this reality. People celebrated the day the hero sacrificed himself for the village, but they didn't know how, nor did they know why.

Naruto did.

Because it was all a charade to hide the awful truth. People were raised and convinced into thinking what the powerful organization told them without thinking of the consequences, the causes, or the meaning of the what occurred around them. They were happy to let themselves be. Naruto had been like that. And in some ways, he wished he would've stayed in blissful ignorance, because now it was impossible for him to stray away from the Path. Like his father's sense of duty to save the village, Naruto felt obligated to save his father from his fate.

The boy couldn't be sure about his Grampa's original intent in sending him with Tiger to discover the truth. His security could've been a pretext, and Grampa carefully planned everything from the beginning, all while perfectly knowing how people would react once aware of his importance. Maybe it was a matter of cause and effect for which he was there in front of his father, questioning until it forced the man to spill the beans. It was likely his Grampa foolishly hoped that only the son would be able to heal his father. If he did, he didn't consider that his father never considered him as a son to begin with. It was something Grampa wouldn't have overlooked.

The Prisoner's Dilemma was built in a way where there was no good solution to the problem. If it had one, Naruto knew he lacked the hindsight to solve it. His father spent eight years in this condition and didn't find one, how would he do it in the span of a day? It was possible his father didn't have the will to find the solution due to his oath. The Sandaime likely hadn't expected the oath to have such consequences.

_It is the wise who are the most foolish._  
_The fish of the sea know not the world of the land._

Naruto memorized those sentences as someone he used to be, someone that craved attention. He thought they were cool and would sound smart if the opportunity arose to say them. Now, he perfectly understood the meaning of those words. An individual with the best of intentions could commit the worst of crimes. Grampa saved his father, but in the process, condemned him to an eternal life of misery, he hadn't known the effects of his actions. The man in question himself probably didn't know what would've happened if the sealing process failed. He didn't know he'd try to kill himself if he survived.

His father never died a martyr.

His father died a broken man.

As a result, Naruto had traded a loving father for a loving spirit.

Naruto was aware that the fox was observing every thought he had, carefully planning the next thing to say for him to stay by its side. Everyone had been manipulating him from the very beginning, each filling their own agenda. Grampa expected him to play the role of the perfect, obedient boy, who strived to learn new jutsu and become the best tool at his disposal like his father has been. Kurama expected him to play the role of the hero, the one who did everything for her wellbeing. His father expected nothing of him because he initially couldn't expect him to be anything.

"I actually never thought you'd ever read them, but it seems you're not a lost cause after all," his father said after Naruto announced his desire to learn and improve. In the man's eyes, he'd been a lost cause from the beginning.

It had only been roles, masks, and lies from the start. That's what a ninja was and should be, it's what Naruto should aspire to be. Manipulating and being manipulated. But the boy didn't want that, he didn't want any of it.

He wanted to stay true to himself and become a man able to wake up in the morning with the capability of looking at himself in the mirror. He wanted to be someone without remorse or regret. He would help Grampa as he would Kurama and his father. He would help them all, not because it was a role, but because it's something he profoundly wished.

Because that's who he was, and what he truly aspired to be.

His Path was there.

That was his Nindo.

This was his resolution.

He would solve the Prisoner's Dilemma.

For them to be free.

* * *

Cockatoo waited in the locker room where Tiger and Naruto were supposed to meet her in the next few minutes. It was always dull for her, but it was still her mission. She was a woman of action, always ready to go in the frontlines of battle or infiltrate the most fortified castles to reach her objective. She loves challenges. It's why she was always happy when Naruto and Tiger appeared, there's always a lot of action around them. Being around them made her feel as though she was amid a tempest, living for the most important moments of the impending hero the child would be. The Sandaime always told the twins that Naruto would be the one to inherit the Will of Fire, because of what he was. The Ultimate Sacrifice.

Cockatoo's devotion to Naruto was akin to her devotion to the Sandaime. Her loyalty towards the boy was unwavering and she would protect him at the cost of her life. The boy was adorable, and she'd always called him a cutie. He was the little brother she never had, it awakened her motherly instincts to keep him. The child seemed so fragile, but at the same time, had the most potential of all. She could witness his growth day by day, maturing from a cocoon to become a beautiful butterfly.

When the closet door opened, Cockatoo noticed the tear streaks on Naruto's face, his eyes seemed to have lost a bit of their brightness. He'd cried all night. She wondered what happened, but Tiger would pay if he ever hurt the boy.

"Take care of him," he said and pushed Naruto to her. Instead of his previous expression, he now wore a smile, the kind you should never see on the face of a child. A disillusioned smile that only a man in his late thirties would have after having spent his days doing nothing that would come to fruition.

And Cockatoo did not like that. She preferred the far more innocent, obnoxious, and brash child that would always surprise her with his mischief.

The boy turned to her and gave a her a sweet smile that revealed his sweet tooth, "Thanks for yesterday Miss Bird, you saved me from the evil ninjas!"

Cockatoo wasn't sure why, but her instinct told her his smile wasn't genuine.

The boy then walked toward the classroom at his usual pace, and all she could do was follow him.

* * *

_Kura,_ Naruto thought, _are you there?_

_Yes, I am…_

Give me an honest answer, Kura. Did you know Tiger was my father?

There was a pause, and then she retorted, _There were clues, a lot of them. Yet, I hoped that wasn't the case. I never liked the man, but he doesn't deserve his current situation. Nobody does. It may seem cruel to you, but I would've preferred that he perished as a hero, not live the meaningless life he's had until now._

_You said my father died during the Accident._

_I really didn't know, Naruto. I told you that I don't remember what truly happened. I was under the control of red-eyed man, whom I barely saw. Then, I was in your seal._

_So you knew my father and didn't tell me anything about him._

_I never hid this fact from you. I told you I'd tell you about your parents when you grow up. I didn't think it would be wise to reveal anything to you now.._

_Why?_ Naruto thought angrily.

Kurama replied, whispering very softly, _You're still in shock. And you really scared me, Naruto. When you learned the truth, I almost didn't recognize you, as if you were something completely different, something foreign to me. I felt lost, alone, when you lost yourself in your thoughts, and I thought I'd lost you forever. The shock hit you hard enough that I felt your spirit shatter, as though someone smashed a hammer through a glass. Remember when you faced off Mizuki?_

He nodded, even though he was not supposed to.

I _took control of your body, then you were before your Grampa, and I gave you the choice of either me or your Grampa. When you did, Naruto, your soul exploded from the inside, the love you had for your Grampa was the only thing holding you together, and you forfeited it for me. You spent two days sleeping, while I spent that time trying to pick up the leftovers of what you were. I'm a being made of chakra, although I lived through many hosts, I don't understand how the human mind works. Had a Yamanaka looked at you then, which almost happened, they would've seen only a web of memory shards in a blackened atmosphere linked to each other only by my red tails. I thought I managed to rebuild you from the ground up, but believe I made a mistake during that process._

_Do you mean I'm no longer human?_ Naruto asked.

_No, that's not what I said. You're still human, just a little different. It's possible that when I separated myself from you, I may have fused a part of myself to you when I took a piece from you, ending up as we are now. That's probably why I feel something akin to love towards you. Before that, it was only another game, but now, it's too late for me to leave just like that. For that reason, I care about you, Naruto, a lot. I don't want you to lose yourself in nothingness like your father did. I don't want a second Minato to my name._

_I am not like my father! I will not end up like he did! I know better now!_

_And yet, you act exactly like him._

He started to cry, _Stop comparing me to Tiger! I am nothing like him. I am…_

He crouched to the ground, choking. He suddenly felt an internal clock, its hands shifted. She revealed herself to him in a swirl of red, her nine tails swinging behind her, marvelously powerful, and yet so soft. Her aura completely enveloped him in a warmth that reminded him of the sun. Her hand was held in his direction, inviting him to come. Her beautiful smile and mischievous eyes were so alluring, he felt his legs moving by themselves. Her enchanting smell engulfed him, it came directly from the woods, as if nature staked its claim. She hugged him, placing his head on her chest as she ruffled his hair, soothing him.

"It's been awhile, Naruto. Hasn't it?"

He cried. He sobbed because it was the only way he would come back stronger, a phoenix resurrecting from its ashes.

"I think I lied to you a bit, Naruto," she quietly chuckled. "When I said I could be everything you wanted, I can't see myself in any other form than what I currently am. I guess the body you adopt ends up ruling the way you think. Now sleep, Naruto, you deserve to rest after what you went through tonight," she said as her lips parted from his.

Her presence vanished like the wind, one that made him close his eyes.

In peace.

* * *

When Naruto opened his eyes, he was in bed. The place appeared familiar, not good news considering he recognized it as the Academy's infirmary. When he looked around, he finally noticed Grampa's presence in the room. The old man was sitting on a chair at his bedside, his Kage hat laid on the furniture nearby. Oddly enough, he was alone, and it might've been the first time Naruto has seen him without anyone else. Outside, the boy could see the red sky illuminated by the sunset at the horizon.

"I think I skipped another day," Naruto joked as he sat up. His Grampa smiled kindly.

"I should scold you for that, but you have what we can call, justifying circumstances, for the day. I already warned your teacher about your case. They will not mark you for the tests you missed today."

Naruto looked at him confused, "Why are you here? Aren't you supposed to be super busy?"

Hiruzen laughed. "Come on, my boy. Did you really think a Kage could last a week without trusting his subordinates a bit?"

Naruto blushed, but Hiruzen continued with a smile.

"Truth be told, yesterday's operation was such a success that we were capable of removing most of the threats that had lain hidden in Konoha for a long time. There are still threats, of course, but I believe I can afford myself an afternoon, especially when my supposed adopted grandchild is in the infirmary," Hiruzen finished with a wink.

"But... why are you alone then? You're supposed to always have bodyguards!" Naruto exclaimed, but it only fueled Hiruzen's laugh, so much he coughed a bit.

"Sometimes, a little privacy isn't so bad. I already secured a place where we can talk without anyone else listening in." Naruto laughed nervously as he thought about Kurama, but didn't say a thing. Hiruzen then held his hand in his own.

"Naruto, I owe you an apology. Do not speak, let me explain first. I ordered Tiger to reveal what happened at his hideout. When he said that he revealed his identity to you, Cockatoo's report made sense. I wanted it to happen, but I had hoped that for the wellbeing of you both, the man would finally be able to express himself. However, even if you are of no help, I don't think he could be saved.

"I'll tell you what happened the night the Kyuubi attacked. Since you now know about the seal you have and why ignorant people hated you, I can fully disclose the truth to you, and I know you are mature enough to know all about it. Before I begin, you must swear to me that you will never reveal this to anyone. Konoha's welfare depends on you when I say this, Naruto. It's important for you to be fully aware of that, and it's not a responsibility I would want to force upon you."

Naruto smirked, "Really, you pull that on me after everything you've done to me? I thought you knew better, Hiruzen Sarutobi."

Hiruzen chuckled. "Now, now, are you so old that you can call me by my name, hmm? Know your place, insolent brat!" the old man chided him as he lifted a threatening finger, but it just made Naruto chuckle in turn.

"So, where were we? Oh yes, the story!" Hiruzen coughed as he took a comfortable position. He became serious.

"The Accident caught us off guard. We knew that your mother's labor would be a dangerous step for a Jinchuuriki, but we hadn't expected it to go wrong as badly as it did."

"My mother was also the Fox's Host?" Naruto asked surprised. That was something Kura neglected to mention.

Hiruzen nodded.

"Of course, your genes from that side of your family grants you great metabolism and longevity. If you're lucky, Naruto, you may live even longer than I do. I've heard of some Uzumaki reaching the age of two hundred, which is a world record if you want my humble opinion.

"But, I'm getting sidetracked. Your father was supposed to be near your mother at the time, and they had everything prepared. Of course, because the birth of the Hokage's son was not a common event, someone alerted your father of a sufficiently grave situation, leading him away from your mother. We don't know the exact details, but it required us to deploy a lot of agents to investigate, but we now know that the attack was purposely planned for a long time to weaken Konoha.

"Up until now, we don't know who was truly responsible, but I swear to you that I will find the one who did it. Nothing will save him from my wrath. At the end, the Fox had only been a tool for his means, and that's what the Fox is, a weapon. I'm sure you are aware sometimes, you feel a quite different, stronger, right?"

Naruto nodded, he saw no point in denying a fact his Grampa already knew.

"I'm warning you now to be very cautious when you decide to tap into its power. The Fox is malevolent, my boy, years of being enslaved by humans made it extremely aggressive towards humans, and the Accident eight years ago is a prime example."

Naruto wanted to say he was wrong, but he just shook his head instead. Hiruzen sighed.

"If I could repair all the mistakes made to this creature and in its heart, if it has the willingness to forgive us, I would let it go."

It was a hand laid toward Kurama, but it was not a hand she could take.

"But that's the past and there's nothing we can do about it. During the Accident, your father fought a powerful man, strong enough to be Minato's equal, an incredible feat by itself. He managed to outwit him by going directly to your mother. As a result, the Fox was released, and it was as I slept that I heard the terrible growl of the Beast. It was terrifying in every sense of the word, Naruto, the Beast's power is unbelievable, it is an intimidating feeling. It made me wonder I made a mistake in letting your mother enter the village.

"Your father, even at that point, was a great Fuinjutsu expert, as was your mother. Your mother started the sealing process to transfer the Fox to you, and Minato joined her later and started to conjure the forbidden power that would make the seal complete, perfect. Your mother died holding you in her arms as I arrived at the scene, but I couldn't interrupt the sealing process, it was a very delicate thing, and I knew the slightest distraction would result in its failure. When the Fox had finally been sealed, I ran to you and noticed your father was still alive.

"He was knocking on death's doorstep. I thought we would lose him that night. He suffered several wounds from the fight, added to the stress from the sealing, and the unknown effects it brought, he looked like a mummy. It took about two weeks with the best doctors at our disposal to keep him alive. We kept his critical conditions a secret, not to appear weak to our enemies from the outside, or to spread panic in the population, but rumors had already spread. Finally, we wanted to stabilize his situation, and a month later, he was fully healed, or so I thought.

"When I met your father at the hospital, he appeared fine. He seemed dispirited, but it was something I expected given the circumstances. Your mother, his wife, just died, and you inherited the curse your mother had, one he inflicted upon you. I wasn't worried at that point, I knew he needed some time to recover. I came back after a week and found him in a disastrous state. His hair started falling out, bags had formed under his eyes, his teeth were yellow, and he appeared anorexic. I saw cuts on his arms and immediately asked the doctors about him. They told me he did that himself, and they used an intravenous solution to give him the necessary nutrients.

"I then called for the most outstanding mind reader, Inoichi Yamanaka, a close friend of your father's, to accelerate the healing process. And yet, even Inoichi was disturbed after the first session. As a Clan Head, Inoichi is well adapted to seeing the worst of things, but he told me he'd never seen so much self-loathing inside a man. Normally, a spirit heals and strengthens itself with time, but it seemed to be the complete opposite with Minato. His own soul acted like a parasite. Inoichi called it an extreme case of an autoimmune mind disorder, where his own mind did not recognize itself as its own, proceeding to destroy itself. Inoichi said he had dealt with similar situations, but this was different.

"After many attempts of reconfiguring his mind into a normal state, Inoichi informed me that Minato's mind would relapse after only an hour, as if impossible to keep a stable, healthy condition. It was sadly futile. Speaking to Minato revealed to be in vain as well, the man would only grumble when he replied. The mere moments he spoke to us was to beg us to kill him, or send him to the front lines so he could die on duty. I asked for my disciple, Jiraiya, Minato's Fuinjutsu teacher, to further investigate the seal his student used. After a while, he found nothing about it. Inoichi called upon his entire clan to help him stabilize your father's state, but it had already been two weeks, and we could not afford any more efforts for your father. We grew tired, out of options, and enemies were ready to take advantage of our vulnerability.

"I then searched through my aged books, they're now likely in Tiger's house, looking for any information on seals that involved making oaths, I saw no other alternative after going through everything we had. You may not remember, but we tried placing you in front of him in hopes that it would help him recover, but it only seemed to worsen the process of his self-destructive mind. I swear, Naruto, we tested everything we could, but in the end, I saw no other solution. After a week of research, I finally found what I hoped for, and went directly to the hospital after testing on guinea pigs. I conjured a very ancient and forbidden ritual that binds a master to a slave and forced your father to recite it.

"I structured the oath in a way that would prevent your father from killing himself, but at its core, it requires total obedience from the slave. Time was against me, and I couldn't afford to find another seal other than this barbarous one, I had to use that on your father. I ordered everybody to give me privacy with him. Knowing your father's dangerous knowledge and incredible ability in battle, I also incorporated in the oath an utmost loyalty to Village Hidden in the Leaves, among other things I cannot tell you.

"I can't tell you the exact terms I used because it's dangerous knowledge for you to possess, and even with the Kyuubi as a watchdog in your mind, I can't afford the risk. What I can tell you is that it's an oath that leaves no loopholes. For now, you are too young and not strong enough. Perhaps later, when you're older, strong enough to defend yourself, in perfect control of the Fox, and have strong political allies, I will reveal that to you and give you the key to be released, or for you to assume ownership over him at the same time as my hat, but for now, it's not possible, Naruto.

"Currently, only I know the key to release your father, and only I can pass on this knowledge. If I happen to die without entrusting it, your father will remain in his eternal state preserving Konoha. His oath will act as his master, and nothing will be able to intercept him from his duty. Your father is currently powerful enough that if I were to release him now, I'm not sure what would happen. Anything is a possibility, even going against the world. The oath I forced upon him made him explore the ninja arts so intensely, we would lose the battle to stop him even with an alliance made up of the five villages. I don't want to unleash hell upon our planet yet. The Bijuu are enough forces of mass-destruction, and I don't want to add your father on top of that.

"Then, I ordered the Yamanaka to eliminate the doctor's memory of a convalescent Minato. Next, every Yamanaka would forget the truth, except Inoichi. To the world, the Yondaime died the day of the Kyuubi's Accident so Minato would be remembered as a martyr, and not as the man begging for his own death. Rumors faded with time and the only official version remained. So far, only I, Inoichi, Tiger, and you know about Tiger's identity. The only S+ secret Konoha now holds.

"Your father told me that if Iwa declared war, I had to release him into the village to stop the war, he wasn't wrong. Alone, he could completely obliterate the village by himself, but there's no need to release him as long as his oath is effective, and my orders don't conflict with some rules. Konoha is fully capable of conquering the world just by sending your father alone. It would be what I do if I were an evil tyrant with the object to control the world, but that's not the case. Do you remember my speech, Naruto? When I told all the students;

"We are here to protect, guide, and lead the world to be a better place and not its ruins! If we have no other choice than to cause destruction, we will always favor the lesser of two evils.'"

"Because of your father, we grew independent of the Bijuu system to balance the forces between the village. We have our own Bijuu in the form of a human, but not exactly a human. As a result, Konoha has grown completely dependent on your father. Most new technologies are discovered due to his genius, and so long as he is here to protect Konoha's inner security, nobody can invade us. He can stop any attempts to overthrow the Hokage. A few months ago, some Uchiha tried to revolt, but he simply went over, cast a genjutsu on the revolutionaries, and tweaked their minds so they wouldn't disturb Konoha's peace, without bloodshed on either side.

"Whenever a delicate problem arises, Minato is there to save the day. We grew complacent, lightened the ninja schedules for the important missions, our ninjas train less, and we are generally less effective. They're under the impression that I have everything under control, whereas I only grow older and weaker until the day I die, and the only thing that would stay would be my name and your father's oath to protect us all.

"And it's because of all that, that I will never release your father from his oath."

Hiruzen finally stopped. His throat was dry after having talked so much. Naruto looked down at his hands, his mind working its best for a solution to the issue, but his Grampa tried everything he could before resorting to the seal. That seal had been the only way for his father to live. Now, his father grew too strong, and there was a risk of becoming a threat that could destroy all they knew and loved. Tiger became Konoha's shield and sword, Konoha could not survive without him. As a token of gratitude, Konoha celebrated the day his father was supposed to have died as a martyr.

Naruto closed his eyes.

Was there really no solution?

Did they really go over every possibility?

"Grampa…" Naruto started. "If I find a way to heal my father and he gains back his humanity, will you agree to remove the oath you put on him?"

Hiruzen nodded. "If you heal him and he indeed recovers his sanity, I will let the true Minato decide what he wants, but I don't think it's actually possible. Unless you manage to reverse engineer the seal he used, of which even the best Fuinjutsu users attempted, it's impossible. It's a type of seal that changes depending on the user's mind in that instance. I cannot ask Tiger to do that because his seal is one of the oath's main clauses."

Naruto nodded.

I am sorry, Kura... he thought, but she did not reply.

"I do have a favor to ask, Grampa."

"Tell me," Hiruzen replied expecting it.

"I might go crazy if I stay any longer at my father's house. If possible, I want to live elsewhere. I don't think staying with Tiger is the solution to save my father. And I find your presence over me… slightly overwhelming. I won't be able to make any progress if I always have someone on my back. I don't know where I'll go yet, but I know I have friends who can shelter me until I find something. I want to find my own way."

Hiruzen stroked his beard, "Are you sure? I understand your need for independence, but it may be one of the few opportunities you would get to be in touch with your father. The more you grow up, the less you will have time to spend with him."

Naruto shook his head. "I would be spending time with Tiger, but it's different than spending time with my father. He doesn't recognize me as a son anyways."

"Hmm… I suppose it makes sense," Hiruzen sighed, "I will agree for you to choose where to live. I will still have an agent follow you, but I will respect your privacy, you have my word as long as your security is assured. Just notify me when you find something, okay?"

Naruto nodded happily. "Do not worry Grampa! I will!"

Naruto then stood up, and waved his Grampa goodbye when he exited through the door of the small room.

When Naruto left, Hiruzen lit his pipe and exhaled his fumes. He could finally relax.

Soon after, a man with a tiger mask emerged from behind a wall, it fluctuated as if made of water. His arms and his head went first, followed by his body, and his legs.

"Nice speech. Even I am not sure revealing so much information to them so early was such a good idea," Tiger commented as he stood next to the Sandaime, looking at the door where Naruto left.

"Actually, I didn't reveal that much. There are still a lot of things they aren't aware of."

"You led them on the entire time. The kiddo is smart, and with the help of his little pet, they may be able to figure it out if we lay too many hints."

"No worries Tiger, everything is under control. The boy needed to be reminded his loyalty toward me, and I gave him what he wanted. Don't you find him endearing? His desire to save you is tenacious."

Tiger shrugged. "I don't need to be saved. The Oath may be a bit restrictive at times, but I'm finally used to it," Tiger said, his voice monotone, "The pros defeat the cons by far. I just feel a bit down sometimes, but as long as I take my medicine regularly, I'll be fine. For starters, it was my choice. The plan you made was quite nasty, I admit."

Hiruzen chuckled. "Because I knew I could trust your acting skills. We had to make sure the Fox was no longer a danger for Konoha. It seems to have grown quite fond of our boy, isn't it?"

Tiger's eyes glistened.

"Of course, we made sure he was the perfect host and it was the perfect weapon. Kushina always said the Fox was smart, and you can foresee the actions of smart individuals."

"I wonder if they will be ready. The Akatsuki has already started moving," Hiruzen wondered.

Tiger's seals seemed to react at the Akatsuki's mention. Pure blue energy crackled between his hands.

"We got time. We're ahead of schedule. They may have taken us by surprise eight years ago, but now, we got the upper-hand."

Hiruzen closed his eyes. "But things will start to get complicated soon. We have to play our hand carefully."

"How are other villages reacting?" Tiger inquired, and Hiruzen opened his hands in response.

"They took my letters as another plot from me, but it was expected. Maybe they will wake up once they will realize their Jinchuuriki gone."

"And how is Jiraiya doing?" Tiger asked.

"He was fine the last time I saw him. Maybe a little drunk after a night spent in a brothel, but you know him."

Tiger nodded, and turned his eyes to the old man, "What will you do about the kiddo and the Fox?"

The old man scratched his beard.

"For now, I'll relax my grasp on him. As the boy said, he cannot grow to his full potential when we're constantly on his back, and now with the Fox on his side, we don't have to worry anymore. Cockatoo will be enough for the task, she's already loyal to the boy. We'll have our hands free for other matters." Hiruzen lit his pipe again, "No regrets about letting him go?"

Tiger looked at Hiruzen in suspicion.

"Why are you asking me this question? You already know I chose my duty over him eight years ago."

"I was just testing the waters," Hiruzen said in a fit of coughs. "Hopefully, I will finally have an heir soon."

Tiger nodded. "For Konoha."

"For Konoha," Hiruzen nodded in turn.

Tiger bowed to him, and disappeared in a yellow flash.

Hiruzen looked at his hat, and put it on his head again. It was his burden.

The clothes did not make the man, but when you accepted the hat once, you could never stop being a Kage.

But only they knew there were two Kage in Konoha.

* * *

Naruto walked through the streets of Konoha with a renewed vision of his village. Its people saw him differently. When he passed through the shops, the shopkeepers would act as if he didn't exist, but now, they welcomed him in, some even offered him dinner for free. Naruto doubted it was because of his newfound fame.

In only two weeks, his life took such a drastic change that he was under the impression that he was a completely different person, it was as if the old Naruto ceased to exist. In the place of the ostracized, scared boy, a loved celebrity emerged. He had been a clueless orphan, had known nothing of his origins, had thought he had been abandoned and became a boy wanting to save the father that sacrificed himself for him. For one reason or another, he felt complete.

Along the way, he also discovered he had never been alone, that there was always someone inside of him who looked out for him. But Kura hadn't said a thing since she appeased him, he wondered if it was because she was angry at him.

_No... I was just thinking about the information we received_ , she replied to his thought and Naruto sighed.

_Do you resent me because I chose to move out of Tiger's house? I know you chase after knowledge and Tiger is probably the quickest way for us to become stronger._

_No, it's better like this. It would've been more difficult in the long run anyways if we weren't able to communicate with each other, and I disliked the fact that you had no freedom over your actions. It may be slow our plan, but I'm more comfortable that way. No, it's not what disturbs me._

_Is it because I'm not only focused on becoming stronger?_ He asked.

_Not really, Naruto. The two objectives don't conflict with each other, as the pursuit of knowledge can also solve your father's problem. No, it's something else entirely._

Kura confused him, but she continued.

_Naruto, don't you think the situation is odd? I might be overthinking, and things are indeed as simple as they seem. But I often remarked that a situation that's too simple and convenient reveals itself to be, in fact, a situation where you only played into another's hand. That's not always the case, but there's a big statistical correlation._

_But, the Sandaime revealed everything to us! We even discovered my father's true nature!_ Naruto countered.

_Then, let me point out a few things that seemed off. It's only now that I'm aware of it because recent events ticked me off. As I told you, I really disliked the fact that you had no freedom, and I was planning a way for us to convince the Sandaime to leave us alone, but he let you go too easily. It was that point that made me realize that the facts were are faced with include a hidden truth._

_I think you're over-analyzing everything_ , he replied.

_I think you'll realize it when I will present you the other facts I found odd._

_First, there's something that I always wondered, and we don't have answers yet. If your father did follow you since you were much younger, he didn't inform your Grampa about the fact that were subjected to abuse several times by your neighbors. You were also beaten for a whole month by Mizuki if you recall, and Tiger should have reported it to the Sandaime. So, the Sandaime, for one reason or another, allowed the abuse to continue because it seems impossible to me that they were unaware of it. We know both of them are smart. Why did they only choose to act towards your wellbeing when I started to act to rally you to my side?_

_Second, we have no guarantee that everything we see or faced with are legitimate. It's more plausible when you're in a village where most of the population can impersonate another person, or even if Tiger has the abilities that your Grampa claims he possesses. You Grampa is fully able to ask Tiger to rewrite our memories if he wanted to like he did with the 'Uchiha revolt'. We have no way of knowing if what he said is true, and we're even less sure that your father and Grampa are really what they seem._

Naruto stopped her, While I agree that your first observation is true in a sense, your second one is only speculation.

Kura replied fiercely, _Then I'll tell you the holes in the story your Grampa narrated to you. First, no matter how strong your father is, he's still human. The Sandaime depicted him to you as if he was a demigod._

B _ut you also saw the books he wrote, the knowledge he has! You told me knowledge is power!_ Naruto argued vividly.

_Actually, I disagree with you there. You only opened one book from his collection, and you didn't even check the content you discarded as gibberish. He could have written the same gibberish lines over and over on all the books he wrote to you, and you would've seen nothing. It seemed illogical the way his Oath functions. Your Grampa said the Oath has no loopholes, but why did Tiger manage to answer some of the questions you asked that would've concerned his oath? If it's so restrictive, Tiger would be of no use to your Grampa because he would've questioned the Oath every time he acted. I think the Oath is actually the core of the problem, and it's something we have no information on._

T _hen why did my father never see me? Why didn't he tell me I was his son?_ The blond pointed out.

_Because not everything revolves around you, Naruto. Maybe the man had other priorities, maybe it was all an act the Sandaime ordered, maybe he cares for you, but you don't realize it. However, there's one last thing that troubles me even more; I feel like it's as if we never had a choice from the beginning to become what we are now as if we were fated to be linked this way. When you're in a place where your feelings and thoughts can't be trusted, you aren't certain about the fundamental truth that states 'I think, therefore I am.' What if I was aware I could take control of your body two years ago, not because I could, but because I was allowed to be aware of this fact? What if everything we went through had been just another game from those who control our lives?_

Naruto shook his head, _I think we lack the information to be able to state such things as facts. You're just being paranoid._

_And I agree_ , Kura admitted. _That's also why our next goal is to check the information your Grampa told us. He actually gave us a lead. He also said that Inoichi Yamanaka knew about Tiger's identity. Confronting him could be a first step, we aren't even sure there are more steps after that._

Naruto sighed, but he knew Kura wouldn't drop the topic until she was sure that her theories proved to be true or false.

_Then, what should we do now?_ Naruto asked. Currently, _I'm in the middle of the road, without a home._

He felt like she smirked.

_There is actually one man we know who can help us, she finally revealed._

* * *

In Konoha's Police Force Headquarters, Inspector Yamanaka culled his recent investigations' files in thought. He was almost laid off the last few days in an attempt to interview the blond kid, now Konoha's celebrity. Roughly one week ago, he received letters in his house from the ANBU telling him to mind his own business if he wanted to keep his job, and since he had no other way to earn money, he had to drop the case. Since then, he'd only been affiliated with uninteresting affairs, like the one that involved a civilian's stolen cat.

Inspector Yamanaka sorted out his files, placing all the insipid papers on the top drawer of his desk. He placed his hat on his face with the intention to nap, his foot trimming on the rough surface of his study. It was already past seven at night, but he knew that there would be no woman to warm his bed, or any family to welcome him back. Inspector Yamanaka was a recluse, he'd severed his ties with his family long ago, he wasn't the kind of person who could fit in a clan mindset.

Then, someone knocked on his door.

"Enter!", he called out as he sat properly. One of his colleagues came in.

"There's someone who wants to meet you," he said.

"Let him enter then!" Inspector Yamanaka retorted without a thought.

Five seconds later, a blond kid with whisker-like scars on his face, passed through the door. Inspector Yamanaka recognized him instantly.

"Inspector Yamanaka, will you accompany me? We have a lot of things to discuss."

* * *

**X**

* * *

_**There were in fact two Kage in Konoha** _


	12. War Games, pt7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Consider this summary as Author notes independent of the story itself:  
> I announce you as the holidays approach soon, I will stop publishing chapters until the 10th January 2018. The following chapters will still be in writing process. Meanwhile, I hope my beta readers will be able to proof-read all the chapters that have been posted. I will then return for the next arc of the story: Asserting the Hypothesis. 
> 
> If you want to represent yourself the Inspector Yamanaka; check out Howard Link from D-gray man. It is quite the picture I have of him in my head (without the dots on his front-head).
> 
> Thank you for reading! See you soon and happy new year! \\_(^_^)_/

**X**

* * *

Naruto had really not expected that the person Kura had meant was the inspector Yamanaka. This man originally came to Naruto to ask questions, and when an investigator, and a Yamanaka at the top of that started asking questions, there was a good chance for the moment later, you would find yourself in T&I section to disclose all about your dirty secrets, even the less crispy details like how many warts you had on your back.

There were several reasons she explained it was interesting to pass through him to reach Inoichi Yamanaka.

First, she told him it would be really unlikely for this man to be related to his Grampa, as they never saw him again their vicinityies since they had an accident with him and the Sandaime had revealed he allowed an ANBU to follow him in broad daylight to prevent all the 'other people' to make a move on him.

Second, they needed someone who could provide them with information on a constant basis, and who was if possible completely independent of clans or the Hokage, and based on the course he had in forensics, Kura could infer that most of the inspectors in the Konoha's Police Forces were lone agents as it was a job that required a total neutrality.

Naruto looked at the man, who appeared so bewildered by his presence that his hat dropped on the ground when he had announced he wanted to speak with him. The man was as tall as in his memories. He still wore the same brown mantle with many pockets and straps. His blond hair war long, tied in a single ponytail on his back, and sparse locks of hair sometimes passed before the man's piercing blue eyes.

On his desk, several piles of papers were duly annotated and were scattered in the manner of fan before him. A cork bulletin board was displayed on the wall behind him, where many pined papers were linked with each others by strings of different colors. The whole office smelt musty and the tobacco. The ashtray on the table was full of butts leftovers.

_I think you should dismiss his colleague if we do not want our conversation to be heard by unrelated agents,_  Kura suggested.

Naruto nodded and turned to the other adult.

"Thank you sir, I will notify you when I am done with Mister Yamanaka."

This one nodded with a smile, retorted that he had been happy to help him and if he wanted Naruto to find him, that he would be at the reception.

And finally, Naruto was alone with the man. This one recovered his hat, picked out a cigarette box and lit a smoke.

"What do you want from me? If I recall well, your bodyguard threatened me to kill me if I ever were seen talking to you again."

So, Kura was indeed right, this man had nothing to do with his Grampa.

"I came alone," Naruto revealed. "You do not have to worry about him."

Kura had proposed him to go to a desert alley far from the main street, so she could amplify to the maximum his hearing sense and it did not seem they were followed. Apparently, his Grampa was faithful to his word when he said he would respect his privacy.

But the man looked at him dubious.

"Are you certain of it?"

Naruto nodded. The man exhaled the fumes in one go, and then crushed the butt on the ashtray.

"If we really have so much to discuss, I would prefer we go directly to my flat if you do not mind. I was on the point to leave anyways," Inspectory Yamanaka revealed.

"I do not mind actually," The man arched his eyebrows.

"Are you not supposed to be at the Academy tomorrow morning? Kids are supposed to sleep early."

Naruto replied with a confident smile.

"I am not your average kid."

And Inspector Yamanaka could see that. They boy seemed to have changed a lot in a span of five days, as if he was now a totally different kid. And the man started to doubt if the boy was not in fact double-crossing him. Sometimes, Inspector Yamanaka thought the ninja kids too clever for their age.

"If you say so. Wait me outside my office the time I pack my stuff, it will not take long."

"Fine," Naruto replied as he got out.

When he closed the door behind him, he sighted.

_He seems to distrust us_ , he thought.

_Of course, you are an important pawn in the political game,_  she replied.  _If what he revealed about being threatened by your Grampa, he is taking a lot of risk. But it is actually a good news for us. My hunch has been right so far._

_I am still thinking all we are doing now is pointless,_  Naruto complained.

_Listen to me Naruto, if everything your Grampa said was true, and if in fact, everything are as they appear to us right now, then we will be alright. But in the contrary, we would regret it if we do not take every precaution in having the upper-hand in the game. You are on my side Naruto, right?_

_Yes,_  he sighted again.

It sort of closed the conversation.

Fifteen second later, the Inspector Yamanaka went out. He was carrying a big briefcase with him.

"This way," the man said as he suddenly held Naruto's hand. "I put a notice that you came with me, kid. We're going out by the backdoor." Then he turned down his eyes to the blond boy. "How should I call you by the way? It will be a bore if we call us each other by our titles."

"Just call me Naruto."

The man nodded.

"So Naruto be it. Call me Mori,"

Naruto also nodded.

"Alright, Mori."

And then, after they went through many somber hallways, before they went though a steel door. The man opened it with a set of keys, and let Naruto out, and Naruto fell in front of another steel door. The man then joined him, picked up another set of keys from one of his pocket's mantle, and opened the next door. They finally got out on a desert street after Mori closed the two doors.

"Why are there two doors?" Naruto asked.

"Man-trap," the man said briefly, "People who try to infiltrate have generally one set of key, not the other. If they try to brute-force the door, an alarm through seal is designed to alert ANBU directly. One of the good things that Konoha invented few years ago."

And Naruto probably knew who did.

"But let's go, my flat is far in the suburbs."

Naruto looked at him surprised. He thought every clans had their own territory.

"You do not live with the other Yamanaka?" Naruto asked.

The man looked at him, apparently angry.

"I warn you, if you ever start talking about clans matters, I am leaving you there. I am not in the mood to listen to that political shit and that is a reason for why I now live alone, and I do not want that political shit to come search after me into my house. Understood?"

Naruto firmly nodded.

And then, they started walking. The moon was not full but was big enough to sufficiently diffuse enough light for them to go through the unlit streets. Naruto barely recognized this part of the city. He had his own fair of exploring Konoha, but he never went so deep in the suburbs. He started to small an unpleasant smell that he affiliated to the sewers. Contrary to the main road that was constantly used by merchants caravans and other important representatives, the one they took seemed to be used by the other part of Konoha, the hidden part of Konoha.

On the way, Naruto was surprised by the amount of beggars and orphans kids who roamed the streets. There were also some hotels that seemed so dirty Naruto wondered how people could actually pay to spend a night in those. But there were also a lot of bars along the road, and the amount of people who were still out actually surprised Naruto. Some of them waved a hello to Mori on the way, that he answered back. Nobody seemed to recognize Naruto there, or rather nobody seemed to care. As the visible part of Konoha ignored the hidden part of Konoha, the hidden part of Konoha ignored the visible part of Konoha as well, as if they were two completely separated worlds.

Finally, they arrived before a tall building among other tall buildings, that seemed as dirty as any other tall buildings, connected to the other dirty streets that were connected to a labyrinth of dark areas mixed with grey areas. Naruto noted that Kura remained silent for the whole walk.

Mori then knocked to the front door, and then, after one minute, an old woman with a stick appeared. She recognized Mori and let him enter, but when she saw Naruto, she stopped them.

"Who's the kid? I did not remember the rent included two persons."

"He won't stay for the night," Mori replied, visibly annoyed.

"You will still pay for two tonight," the woman argued.

"Fine," Mori said with a grimace on his face. He sorted out a bill from his mantle, and gave it to the old woman who was grinning revealing all her missing teeth. Naruto then saw her go in her own flat, that was directly interfaced with the exit. Mori then leaded Naruto to an unlit corridor that leaded to unlit stairs.

"Be careful, Naruto. There are missing stairs. I do not think the old hag has ever thought one time about renovating her place."

And indeed, Naruto almost fell many times and if the man did not warm him, Naruto was certain he would already have been in hospital.

They stopped at the third floor, and after they walked few seconds, they finally arrived before his flat. Mori searched for his key in his mantle's pockets and five seconds later, they were inside. The flat had the same smell that his office, musty and of smoke. Mori then pulled out his sleeves, and checked something on his hand. Then he closed the door behind them.

Mori then lit a smoke, and his shoulders' tension finally alleviated. "Seems like you did not lie. It is just the two of us."

"What did you do?" Naruto asked, curious. The man then revealed revealed the seal on the back of his hand. It looked like a lock connected with a stick, with some weird symbols besides it.

"This thing is actually quite simple, but fucking expensive. It cost me two months of pays to ask for a private company to implement the whole system for my flat. It connects every openings, windows, doors of my flat with each other, and informs me every time someone enter or leave. Unless someone knows a mean to teleport inside, or passing through the walls, we are fine enough."

But Naruto doubted it this kind of thing would stop a man like Tiger, but he did not comment further. Mori presented him a low table, with four cushion disposed around, and he invited Naruto to sit on one of the pillows. Naruto did, but he felt like he had only the rough ground under his rear.

The man then started to boil water in a pan, and then came back to Naruto as he lit another cigarette. He put his briefcase on the table without opening and tapped on it with his finger, as he fixed Naruto with his piercing eyes, evaluating him.

"So, what did you want to speak with me?"

Naruto breathed deeply, but coughed a bit as some clothes went into his lungs. Then he said:

"I need someone like you, Mori. I think you can help me."

Mori seemed to be surprised.

"Why would you need my help? Don't you have your watchdogs from the Sandaime?"

Naruto smiled.

"That's exactly the problem. As I am concerned, everything I want to know, or everything question I ask is directly reported to him. I need a man like who's completely unrelated."

"State your price," Mori suddenly declared.

"What?" Naruto asked confused.

"I said, state your price. My services are not free. Visibly you need for someone to investigate on some matters, and my time is limited and as a result, valuable."

Naruto went silent as he closed his eyes.

_What to do?_  he asked Kura.

_That's a problem I did not overlook. Hmm... I think I have a plan. I think this is a kind of man who would agree to pay his services for some knowledge we have._

"I am waiting," Mori informed.

"I am thinking," Naruto replied.

_And what should I tell him?_

_I think we will have to play some cards from our hands if we want to make progress. Sometimes, a compromise is necessary. Tell him you have a secret that no one knows excepted you, S-class. He knows you are under the Sandaime's protection, and it is extremely probable for you to have this kind of secrets._

_We will not reveal him about our father!_  Naruto protested.

_No, I was not thinking about your father, I was thinking about me._

_Really Kura? You would really sacrifice your anonymity?_

_As I said, you cannot get something valuable without conceding something in exchange. And this man can be extremely valuable. I already sacrificed my independence to obtain you, sacrificing my anonymity for knowledge seems a fair trade_.

_I don't like it Kura!_

_Neither do I. But do we have a choice? Sometimes, you have to pick up the less worst options among the ones you have to make progress, and we are deprived of choices and resources right now. It is an investment. All investments present risks. Sacrificing knowledge to obtain more knowledge is well worth it if you are aware of your trade-off. This man's abilities will be extremely useful for us, and it is a price I am willing to pay._

Naruto sighted and then opened his eyes.

"Is it okay for you if I trade secrets for your services?"

Mori put his hat down, and then proceed to lit another cigarette.

"Depends which kind of secrets you are talking about. If you meant the dinner you ate yesterday night, I can go live without that piece of information."

"I already told you I am not your average kid, Mori. I was talking about S-class secrets."

Mori spat his cigarette and coughed.

"Are you allowed to reveal those to me? I do not really want to die."

Naruto smirked.

"It is a secret only I know. And to my knowledge, even the Hokage does not know about it. So as long as it is only me who is involved, you can fear nothing."

Mori picked up his cigarette in put it in his mouth.

"Then why would it interest me? I mean,information is valuable only if it can be traded for money. And more the secret is important, more the secret is difficult to exchange with money."

_Now repeat after me Naruto:_   _As a result of this secret being extremely hard to trade, you will swear you will not reveal this secret to anybody, but in exchange, I will only require your service for one week, and afterward, we will be go on the classic payroll._

Naruto wanted to ask her how she planed them to get money but he contented himself to repeat what she told him. The man seemed to think. He then went to the pan to put noddle inside and asked if Naruto wanted to some, which Naruto answered with a yes, then the man came back to the low table, to sit in front of the boy.

"I admit I am curious. You say not even the Hokage knows about it, and I imagine it is sufficiently important to be considered as a S-class. Hmm... One week is not so much, as long as it is only on my free time. Okay boy, I am okay with that."

_Tell him then: If it is only on your free time, I will want also information on three closed cases of the past years, and I guarantee in exchange not to reveal those information to anybody as well._

So Naruto did and Mori scratched the sporadic hair of his beard not cut yet.

"Well, well... That's why I brought this briefcase in the first place, because I knew we would eventually come to this point. Hmm, that seems reasonable for me. Deal?" Mori accepted as he held his hand toward Naruto.

_We will not be able to come back after that, are you really sure Kura?_

_Go,_  was the only thing she said.

So Naruto did shook his hand. Mori grinned.

"So reveal me that secret, Naruto. Tell me something that even the most powerful man of this land does not know."

_Close your eyes and put your hands on your jaws_ , Kura ordered in a final tone.

Naruto did and he suddenly felt the usual bubble effect that came when Kura took over.

* * *

Mori Yamanaka had to admit the boy did surprise him. He seemed awfully mature for his age. Mori himself knew the moment this boy had came in his office, his life would completely be changed in some ways. The boy political influence was powerful, but then, he came alone to him to request his service because his political influence came at the price he could not be independent. That was something Mori could relate as a self-made man. Even if in the end, he ended up in the suburb with almost not a single penny to his name, the freedom he had earned had been well worth it.

The secret the boy was talking about was really intrigued him. Actually, if the boy had come with that secret five days ago, when he was still investigating on the murder of the eight civilians, case that had been closed by his higher-up because of ' _reasons_ ', Mori would have said no to the trade. But since Mori had almost been laid-off from his workplace, he only had boring affairs, and he eventually grew really bored. Mori was the kind of man who took great pleasure at solving cases that seem impossible at first view. And the boy seemed the kind to bring him exactly this type of challenges he sought for.

Mori then watched the boy smash his own jaws with his hands, and closing his eyes. The boy then said in a deep voice that Mori thought it would not have been possible for a child to have:

"What we are about to reveal to you shall not, under any circumstance, be known by anybody else excepted us three."

Wait-What?

The boy then opened his eyes, there were no longer the usual cerulean blue that the boy had, but now displayed a crimson-blood like color. His whiskers-like scars on his face also grew more deeper, sinister, almost animistic. Mori swore, despite the fact he had no Byakugan or Sharigan, that he could see the incredible energy that swirled red around the boy's body.

By reflex, Mori tried to scream, but no sound came out of his mouth, as a terrible aura suddenly seized his lungs and he felt a chill down his spine, chill that shook all the bones of his body as one. Mori was sweating as if he was under the sun of the more ardent of deserts.

"When you will calm down, I will release my power from you."

'Spare me' were the words he wanted to say but no voice could come out of his mouth. Of course, as an adult, he knew the boy was a Jinchuuriki but fuck, to see the demon in real was a completely different thing. Mori looked in the eyes of the eldritch abomination and felt as if his worst nightmare came true. Those iris were indescribable, incomprehensible.

Alien.

The thing seemed to be analyzing him, looking into the deepest part of his being. Mori, as a Yamanaka, had been initiated to the mind-walking techniques and had already checked numerous minds of suspects, nothing prepared him to feel what the mind of the Beast brushed his own. Maybe it was the terrifying aura of the creature that forced him, as a reflex, to use his jutsu to be able to take back control of the situation, but the result that he felt like if his brain was splitting in two.

And then he felt nothing, smelt nothing, saw nothing excepted a blackened background of darkness. A door suddenly appeared in front of him, and when Mori put his hand on the handle, he noted he had no sleeves, and remarked that he was in fact naked. Mori knew what kind of door it was, but he suddenly forced to open it, by a will that was not his own.

Then, many doors appeared successively before him in this space-like environment. Each time he opened one, he felt like a clock in his body that had his hands shifted, a doom-like clock that announced probably his future death.

Clic. Clic. Clic. Clic. Clic.

Clic.

When the final clic resonated in his mind, he was instantly projected in the living room of a flat. But Mori immediately notified that this room had no doors, had no windows, had no opening where he could flee. He was indefinitely trapped. Some kind of pulsations resonated, in the manner of a vessel pumping blood, that was visible on the walls, on the ground and on the ceiling. When Mori looked in front of him, he had the impression that the space itself stretchered endlessly, as if the room had no limits, but had the same time, had limits.

And then Mori  **saw**.

The bed

on which

the  **thing**

was

controlling with its tails

the  **bundle of flesh**

that Mori identified

as the  **boy**.

Mori tried to flee, but a tail clutched his leg like a shackle. He gripped the ground, crawling for his escape, but he now realized that he no longer had hands attached to his arms. He tried to scream, but one of the tails went over his mouth and his voice muffled out.

" **Shhh, you are going to wake him up if you continue,** " the terrific voice said angrily. " **He's sleeping, don't you see it? My dear treasure...** " it continued in a soft voice. It then soothed the bag of flesh and organs that was pulsating on the two sized bed. The thing was bathing on it, on his blood. It tasted it, with its nine-tails swirling around in a whirlpool-like tornado of red fur the girl-demon-fox-thing. It was prostrating on the blood, flesh, organs, bones, things of the boy.

" **Oh... You are so marvelous Naruto. You're filling me up...** " it said ecstatic. The head of the thing was diving inside the leftovers of the boy. Its tongue licked the guts, then the balls, its teeth sunk in the skin, lifting marks after their departure.

Mori could not digest what he was seeing. It was fucking horrible. He had no words to describe all the horror, the terror the scene inspired him. The flesh was constantly bleeding, imprisoned, poisoned by this the red aura that stabilized its state afterward so the thing could indefinitely continue to feed on the renewed flesh.

" **I love you so much Naruto... only I can understand you...** " it said filled with lust, eating, licking, sucking the boy, as if it was its toy, its object of desire. Mori felt his soul shatter as he was watching the horror, the craziness, the outerworld expression of love which was presenting to himself.

" **I will never hurt you Naruto... just tell me what you want...** " it muttered to the human meat bag of a boy.

As a response, many pulsations resonated on the walls, as if the scene happened inside of an organ. With his experience in minds reading, Mori realized that it could be the brain of the boy, which made everything more terrible.

" **Yes... I understand... The evil man was not supposed to know our secret... our love... Do not worry, I will take care of him!** " The red of eyes of the creature turned to the man, prowling its tails in his direction.

And now, he screamed.

* * *

_Kura? What are you doing?_  Naruto asked in his bubble state as he saw Mori drooling on the spot since twenty seconds, as if he had fainted. The man's eyes flickered in red.

_The man got afraid and instinctively activated a jutsu that made him collide with my mind. I did not expect that actually. I am afraid he did not handle the shock, so I am currently reconfiguring his brain in order to save him,_ she replied in a meditative tone.

_What? Kura? Wait, what do you mean by reconfiguring his brain?_ Naruto required worried.

_The exact same thing I did to you Naruto after you had the accident with Mizuki. I think his spirit just shattered and I am picking up the shards bits by bits. But this time, I will not do the same mistake as I did to you Naruto, so no worries, we will stay as we are._

_Are you sure about it?_  Naruto asked doubtful. And him, w _ill he remain the same?_

_About him, I don't know Naruto. As I told you, I do not exactly understand how a human mind is supposed to work, so I am building it from my view of it. But I actually feel more confident after what I did with you. I am doing my best to heal him. I just need more time... more time... more... Oh right, I think I managed to pick up everything. Hopefully, the man's mind had been been really strong and presented little cracks before we collided, so I could make it recover faster than I did with you. I think three more seconds and... done._

Then, Mori snapped out of his weird state, and looked at them. He then said with a smile:

"Thank you. Now I am finally realizing the truth. You were right, your secret is too important to be revealed."

Naruto heard himself purr:

"I am happy you finally understand us! So now you have what you wanted, we will require your services in more... a persistent manner."

"Of course!" He replied obedient. "Oh, I almost forgot about the noddles, let me serve it to you."

"Thank you!" Kura said happily through Naruto's voice.

The man came back with two bowl and gave one to Naruto.

"Now," Kura resumed. "I will precise more in detail the case I want you to investigate:

"I want you to report to us every cases that had been closed by higher-up since the two last years, and also about the Accident that concerned us eight years ago."

Mori scratched his head.

"It will be difficult for me to get all the information you want, but I think I can manage in one week to give you something satisfying."

Kura purred again.

"Perfect! Now, tell me what you discovered about the eight men that died eight days ago during the Festival."

Mori frowned.

"It was really a pain in the ass to get the information as it is a closed case, and ANBU were supposed to seize every documents we had. I managed to hide it in secret, as I planned to investigate on my own off-radar. You should understand that, I am not supposed to give those information to you."

"Come on... please!" Kura begged.

"Fine, fine. Normally, I'd make you pay it but as you insist, I cannot really say no."

Mori Yamanaka then opened his briefcase, and revealed eight documents, each concerning a victim in the murder case. Naruto recognized most of the men who frequently abused him in the past, and made him have nightmares at night. Each document displayed a lot much information concerning their job, their family, their hobbies, along with personal notes of Mori as well. Mori then explained the case:

"As you can see, the eight men were found in a street close to the city center. The scene seemed really unnatural, because it presented two conflicting facts. First, the victims were shown to have been tortured and second, their face and the disposition of their bodies were showed it was as if they had willingly offered themselves to the murderer. One of my colleagues, a Uchiha, analyzed that it was in fact a Genjutsu caused by a strong Dojutsu, probably a Sharigan it seems. The bystanders of the scenes were also shown to have received a similar Genjutsu.

"To start with the profile of the murderer, considering the identity of the victims, as they were all civilians, the first hypothesis was the murderer killed his victims because of money. It could have been an underground affair where the victims were in fact indebted with one organisation. We noticed that all the victims were in fact indebted to the most powerful organisation in the village; the administration.

"The second hypothesis would have been the murderer to be only the mean of the crime. We supposed then someone hired a professional killer to deal with the civilians. It could have been then any motives possible; vengeance, money, anything else but as the criminal left no traces aside of the pattern of the leftover Chakra had been identified by my colleague, we cannot be sure. We did not exclude the hypothesis but we had no means to assert this one.

"The third hypothesis is that the murderer was simply crazy, but the fact it was a slaughter and not a serial murder, we cannot infer the hypothesis. The investigation showed they were no act of preparation, nothing that would indicate aside the victims have a meeting at the same place they would die that way.

"As the scene has been closed up after two days by the ANBU, we can infer with certitude that the murderer is in fact a mixture of the two first hypothesis, i.e. the administration recruited Konoha ninja's to kill those men. As we could no longer investigate on the scene crime, the investigators on this case decided to explore the background of the victims.

"The victims, excepted for their debts, had all a clean police record and were honorable citizens. Aside from the fact they were all bachelor, they had a job, they payed their taxes, and lived a peaceful life. However, four victims of the eight shared a troubling common point; they arrived in Konoha two years ago and they were all assigned to one residence to this address."

When Mori pointed his finger on Konoha's map, Naruto suddenly wanted to puke, despite the fact he saw everything through his bubble. His Grampa, when he sought him in the orphanage two years ago to adopt him, placed him in the same residence as the four 'victims' were.

Wait, what did Kura ask to Mori?

Kura, using Naruto's body, grinned and declared:

"Yes Naruto, I asked Mori to report to us every cases that had been closed by the ANBU since the two last years."

* * *

The next morning, Satoshi Uchiha had been found dead on his bed.

* * *

**X**

* * *

_**Satoshi Uchiha had been found dead on his bed** _


	13. Asserting the Hypothesis, pt1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Happy Christmas

**X**

* * *

After Mori finished to explain the weird murder case of Naruto's bullies, Kura let Naruto take back the control of his body. Kura then advised him to ask Mori if they could stay in his house for a while, and of course, when Naruto asked, Mori accepted. Naruto was not blind and he was aware Mori was so compliant because of what happened when his mind collided with Kura.

They finished eating and Naruto helped Mori to do the dishes. The least he could now was to be helpful. It was the only thing Naruto could do after what they had done to him. Kura told him it was pointless to be guilty about that and said it was her fault as she did not overlook the fact a Yamanaka could react that way to her presence, but Naruto shook his head nonetheless. He could not really fault Kura for it, as he was also the one who agreed with her plan.

Naruto then questioned Kura about the further consequences of her operation on Mori and herself admitted she did not know and they would have to wait to see the results. Naruto sighted. The boy asked the blond investigator where they could sleep, and Mori answered he would change the sheets of his bed for him to sleep on it while he would just lay on the floor. It somehow hurt Naruto to see him that way.

From the short amount of time Naruto got in touch with Mori, he knew that the man was intelligent and independent. He also understood why Kura chose this man as their own "spy" because of those two points. It just made Naruto even more saddened as he realized that the man's freedom caused him to loose his free will. This fact was certified when he asked him to do stupid things, like pinching his own nose, and Naruto was aware that everything he asked Mori was perceived as an order for the man.

It was kind of ironic that it all came from the fact Naruto wanted to save his father from his own fate  _by his own way_. If he stayed at his father's house, he would have never meet again Mori and Mori would have stayed the man he had always been. What Naruto did to him was exactly the same what his Grampa did to his father, which was enslaving another man against his will. He really did not like this but he could do nothing about that. Now the deed was done, he had to move forward.

This night, Naruto tried to proceed all the information that came into his knowledge. There was a lot to absorb and to analyze. And he knew he had to be methodical in the process. Time was flying away and every seconds not used were lost.

_Do you want us come inside our fake world so we can both think about it?_

Naruto nodded. As he did, he felt as if there was a clock inside of him that had its hands shifted and he felt like as if he was projected from miles from where he was. Kura finally appeared before him, in his old flat. She was seated on a chair next to the table Naruto's used to eat. Naruto stood up from the bed and joined as he seated just in front of her. The table suddenly was lit, and some papers appeared out of air above the table. On them, Naruto could see the pieces of information of what they learnt the days before.

Naruto then looked at Kura, and he saw she wore this time a white lab coat above her black sweat and glasses as well. Her face was serious.

"Now, we will use this place to talk about our future plans or every time we get information about facts that need to be analyzed," she said casually as she enrolled one of her locks around her pink finger. "I am going to say in bold the important  **truths** about which we can be sure:  **You are Naruto Uzumaki, son of Kushina Uzumaki and Minato Namikaze. I am the Kyuubi, the Nine-Tailed Fox; whose true name is Kurama.**   **We are ally because it is the wisest course of action for us to take.**   **Tiger is in fact the Yondaime who is alive. Your father being alive is a S+ secret.** "

Naruto seemed surprised."I expected we were sure about... more facts. For example, I was certain that the seal that 'keeps' you here was no longer a question for us."

Kura shook her head. She picked up a sheet where she annotated all the elements she just announced.

"Those are undeniable truths. Everything else is subject to be either a lie or an uncompleted truth. For example: about our seal that supposed to keep inside of you, as I told you, I am not sure if the fact I was aware of it only two years ago was only because I was just being stupid not to be aware of that or if there is more underneath. I will now name this case proposition {1}. That's not something we can really deduce until we get more information. We should wait until Mori bring us more data to analyze. I took a great deal to memorize everything. I will now question every facts the Sandaime brought to us:  
(1)the Accident caught Konoha off-guard.  
(2)Up to now, they do not know yet the true instigator of the attack.  
(3)Your mother died holding you in her arms as the Sandaime arrived to the scene when your parents were sealing me inside of you.  
(4)The whole healing process of your father.  
(5)The whole Oath thing your Grampa did to your father.  
(6)Inoichi Yamanaka remembering 'the truth' and Tiger's identity.  
(7)Your father being the Konoha's super-hero and a demi-god.  
We will consider (1) to be true for now, as it is far-stretched to think that is a ploy of your Grampa. (2) is something we cannot be sure, (3) as well."

"Wait," Naruto stopped her. "Do you mean my mother can still be alive?"

Kura shrugged. "They did it to us with your father. I would not be surprised if your mother was in fact still alive. It is unlikely but it is still a probability."

Naruto did not even think about the implications of this possibility, so he just shook his head.

"Naruto," Kura started to say. "We have to question every facts in the most neutral and unbiased manner possible. It is the only way for us to uncover the truth about everything. Not neglecting any possibilities is a prerequisite of that, even if the possibilities may hurt us." She sighted again and then continued. "(4) may be true but it may not have happened the way your Grampa told us. (5) is something we have to investigate. (6) is probably the first thing we should check. (7) is absurd on my humble opinion, as your father may be strong, but he could not be invincible, and it is also tied with another fact that I think it is a lie your Gampa told us as well. There is the fact the Konoha ninja became less strong over the time, but I think it is quite the contrary in fact, as I think they actually grow stronger and more prepared, your Grampa's will to prepare even Academy's students for war is a prime example of that."

Naruto nodded before he picked up the papers that concerned the information Mori gave them. He tried to imitate the way Kura think:

"While we cannot be certain that Mori's information are true, we can be certain that considering his situation, he has been honest and has not hidden anything from us. So I will summarize what we know up to now:  
[1] Eight civilian died.  
[2] The eight civilians were the ones who bullied me everyday.  
[3] The ANBU closed the murders' case two days after it had been discovered.  
[4] The eight civilian were indebted to Konoha.  
[5] Four of them were my neighbors and came to Konoha two years ago, probably because of their debts.  
[6] They all had clean police record and were honorable citizens"

Kura smiled to Naruto and summarized what they listed: "The propositions between {} concern us directly. The propositions between () refer either to the Sandaime, to your Father, or about what happened during the Accident. The propositions between [] is related to the cases closed by the ANBU for two years or the murders' case that happened eight days ago. I will now list the fact about us of which we can be certain:  
{2} You were adopted by your Grandpa two years ago, and the week after that, he put you in your flat where you stayed for two years until I took contact with you.  
{3} Your Grampa, Tiger and probably most of the adults in Konoha know you are the Kyuubi's Junchuuriki and thus you are my host as well. You are 'Konoha's secret weapon' if we consider Tiger does not take the job already.  
{4} Everybody in Konoha now know you are the Yondaime's son and the Sandaime's protege.  
{5} Therefore, as a result to {2}, {3} and {4}, you are the most valuable pawn in the political game. Every clans or important persons seek an alliance with you and want to be your friend.  
{6} Consequently, you are probably the one who is logically the next heir for the Kage's place in the future. If the Sandaime does not die in the next ten years, you will be certain to inherit his position.  
{7} Yet, because of that, you are the main target to kill for every Konoha's ennemies, it includes every hidden villages and most bounty hunters in the world.  
{8} Because of all the above points, you will probably never leave Konoha until you become what you are meant to be by your Grampa. You will be always staked by his agents until you grow strong enough, both mentally and physically to fend off every attack to you.  
{9} And for those reasons, the Sandaime will do probably everything in his power to keep a hold on you. As long as you are loyal to him, we do not have to worry about him being our enemy.  
{10} And yet, because of our alliance, of what I am and what I did, the Sandaime may see us as a threat, that is why we will have to be extra careful never to reveal our secret to him. If we manage to hold for ten years, we will be in the most appropriate position to rule this country, and therefore the world."

Kura then lifted another sheet before Naruto. Her fingers suddenly lit the different propositions she mentioned above and started to put correlations between them:  
"Now, we will start to draw conclusions based on the facts we already have. All the propositions with a [] imply a strong correlation with your Grampa involvement in the murders' case of your bullies. The death of those civilians were probably ordered by him. The motive would be obvious because of [2] if we were not aware of the fact that you were constantly monitored by one agent since you were a baby. Your Grampa knew the men bullied you but decided not tot act. Worst than that, he probably was involved in the whole bullying in a manner or another because of all the proposition with [] you listed. The question is why? Why would he do that? It does not make any sense with all the propositions we stated {}, unless there was another motive underneath. It comes to me a lot of events were thrown into mention two years ago. The fact that I was only aware two years ago that I could take over your body, the fact that you were adopted two years ago by your Grampa, The fact that your Grampa probably planned all the bullying on you, the fact that, the fact that I waited to contact you the moment you would be vulnerable enough mentally to accept my suggestions and become my ally.

"Therefore, my hypothesis of the whole picture is that, in a way of another, your Grampa was involved in the modification of my psyche and it was not only a decision I took on a whim that enabled me to see your potential as the best way to recover my freedom. This hypothesis also implies that the Sandaime supposed that my main goal was my freedom, which is true in a sense. If he really planned everything so far, it frightens me how he managed to read me so well, or maybe it was because of the modification of my psyche that he managed to read me so well. By becoming your ally, I grew dependent of you, and therefore, as long as you you would remain loyal to Konoha, I would be loyal to Konoha as well due to my link with you, making you the ultimate Jinchuuriki so far."

And it somehow made sense. Naruto knew that Kura would know he would think that, because of their links. So, really? Was it the only reason for which he suffered for eight years as an orphan? To become the ultimate weapon at his Grampa's disposal? And the worst, it was he did not even feel angry about that, because he knew in deep it would just be vain.

"So what to do now?" he asked Kura. Her grin grew even bigger when he required that.

"I am happy you actually take it so well Naruto, even if I suppose it is somehow related to our bonds becoming stronger."

Naruto nodded. If his bonds with Kura enabled the fox to have feelings toward him, he felt that he was quite the contrary less dependent of his feelings, and he guessed that their bonds inside this fake dimension were even stronger than in the real world made this trait more pronounced.

Kura then stood up, her white lab coat floating behind her as she came to him and encompassed her arms around his head, with her chin touching his forehead.

"Actually Naruto, even if this hypothesis reveals itself to be the truth, it does not change a thing for us. Our goal still remains the same, which is becoming stronger by accumulating knowledge, and it is even better actually if this hypothesis is validated." Before his surprised glare, she continued. "Because he would see our close relationship in a good way, which is great in a sense, because it would mean he would be aware of our plans and he would not against them but quite the contrary, he would encourage us to purse them for we become stronger and become the ultimate weapon he want us to be, as long as we remain loyal to the Leaf."

Naruto lifted his eyes to her, and looked into hers. "And are you not against this idea, for us to be loyal to the leaf? Isn't it a roadblock to your freedom?"

And again, she surprised him. "I do not care actually. I am aware that freedom is a relative notion, and it exclusively depends on how your freedom affect others'. I am aware that because of what I am, I will never be truly free in a sense, unless I accumulate enough knowledge and influence to be able to decide what I want. And now, what I want is subject to change as it is now depending to you Naruto. So what do you want Naruto? Do you want us to be at war with your Grampa and consequently with your father? I am sure you don't, and so do I. I see no interest in us being their enemies as long they don't see us as theirs. As long as they provide us with knowledge and don't take action that would impede our freedom, I will agree to become their ally. That's a win-win situation for both parties and something I can only approve."

Naruto finally returned her smile. "So, I repeat my question, what should we do now?"

Kura slowly released Naruto from her hug and walked few steps away, as she looked above her. "I guess we should continue our act for now. We are not sure if this hypothesis is true. Of course, we can go directly to your Grampa office and confront it with our current disposition, but it is a risky move I am not ready to take yet. We need more hints, more clues, more information, more data. Mori will provide us with some but we will have to investigate on our own in the next days, or weeks if it has to take weeks. And yet, our action will still be limited during this time." She turned to him. "I guess we are done for tonight. We will reunite when we will have enough data to draw conclusion, and then, we will decide of our next course of action. For now, it is investigation only during our free time."

Naruto smirked at her. "And I deserve no rewards for being such a good boy?"

She laughed. "I guess you do!" she said as she came close to him and kissed him softly. And when she did, the whole place slowly evaporated and he felt the clock inside of him having its hands return to their initial position. Her lingering glare on him was the last thing he saw from her when he came back to the reality. He noted Mori was sleeping on a mattress he had put next to his bed. Naruto finally remarked the symbol on his hand's back had changed.

_It seems like we have one rat inside of our hideout, Naruto,_  he heard Kura say.  _You should check if the door is closed. I have a hunch on who is the intruder. You don't need to wake up Mori, it is already one in the morning and the man has to rest._

Naruto stretched his muscles as he stood up. He went before the door, checked the handle and noticed it was locked. He checked the windows, that were closed as well. He explored the whole flat, but there were nobodies aside him and Mori. He guessed pretty easily who it was.

"Miss Bird! Show yourself now or else I won't forgive you!", he said calmly in the living room.

There was a surprised cry, and Miss Bird suddenly unrevealed herself. She was wearing her light armor with her uniform underneath with her mask on her face.

"How did you know I was there?" she asked, irked. It was the first time she was discovered by somebody, and it had to be a child at top of that.

Naruto explained: "The owner of this place has a way to check when someone comes in or come out."

"Oh, that's it! Damn, I should have known it was the kind of guy to put this system here," she declared as she removed her mask and clipped it on her belt.

"Since when are you here?" Naruto asked suspicious.

Miss Bird shrugged. "I just arrived one minute ago. It took me a while to find you. Can I see the owner? I heard he's a Yamanaka."

"Shh! You're too loud. Don't bother him, he just had a rough day. He does not need to know there is another person here."

"Oh right!" she said as she sat before Naruto, her leg crossed. "Do you plan to stay there for long?"

"I don't know actually. The owner was kind enough to accept that I stay for the night. If he agrees, I will probably stay at his house. Why do you ask?"

"Hmm... It's a bit far from the Academy. You'll have to walk thirty minutes everyday. That's not really practicable," she commented surly, as if she was concerned.

"It is better than to be harassed by fangirls or the clan kids."

She stroked her chin in thought. "Maybe you're right indeed. But you'll have to keep this place a secret then. Oh!" She exclaimed suddenly smashed a fist on her palm. "I almost forgot why I came here. I brought you your clothes, a towel and a soap. I also prepared a meal for you in case you did not eat tonight, and—"

"Stop, stop! How much did you bring with you? Naruto beckoned, not believing what he was seeing. Three bags as big as him just appeared out of her hands.

"Tehehehe," she laughed as she stick out her tongue comically. "Only those three bags but I packed everything I could. There are also your textbooks and some books you read also."

Kura snickered.

Wait, something was not right. "Did Grampa order you to stalk me?"

"No, the Sandaime specifically required all agents supposed to guard you not to follow you any longer."

"Then, why are you there?"

He saw Miss Bird redenning.

"If you can keep a secret about my presence there... I am not really supposed to be there."

Naruto seemed dumbfounded. "You are disobeying a direct order from Grampa?"

She laughed sheepishly. "It is not really disobeying! I did not plan to follow you, I just wanted to bring you some stuff," and before his glare, she diverted her eyes on the side," among other things."

Naruto face-palmed. "Right, now explain the true reason of your presence here."

"You know, since the moment you fainted before me... I was a bit worried about you... and I heard from the old man you had no home to go... so I planed to invite us to live at my house with Ara and me."

It actually surprised Naruto. But he deeply breathed and shook his head. "I am happy you care about me, but you see, if my Grampa ordered all the agents to stop following me, it was because I wanted some space, and living in your house would just be nonsense for me as you would just report everything I do."

He hoped she would understand, but instead, she nodded happily with a big grin. "Fine! I will stay here with you if you prefer this place!"

He widened his eyes. "Is there something you did not understand with what I just said?"

The blush intensified. She joined awkwardly trimmed her fingers.

"But I feel lonely at home... Ara is only coming back the week-end... and then she's only sleeping..."

_Naruto, we have a problem. This woman won't leave you alone and her stalking ability is too much a bore. Just let her stay but ask her not to use her powers inside of the house as a compromise,_  Kura suggested.

Naruto sighted. "Fine, you can stay there, but do not use your power to stalk me, okay?"

She was so happy that she just hugged him closely in a cuddle. "Thank you, cutie!"

"And call me Naruto!" barked the boy as he pushed her away. Now he realized. "How should I call you by the way?"

"You can continue to call me Miss Bird if you want. My sister calls me Co' if you may consider another name."

"Fine Co'. And no reports to Grampa!"

She nodded vividly. "No reports!"

He sweat-dropped. He really felt like he was the adult and her the kid. She then picked up a towel and a soap from of the bags and grinned at Naruto.

"Wanna take a shower?"

It was true he smelt a tidbit. He did not take a shower for two days.

"Alright, we—"

"Hey Naruto, you did not tell me that there would be another freeloader tonight," interrupted a voice from the bedroom.

It was Mori. He only had his pants on. He was smoking again and his withering glaring at the two showed he did not seem pleased.

"Oh! You must be the Inspector Yamanaka! Nice to meet you!" Cockatoo exclaimed as she stood up to shook her hands with her man, not reading the atmosphere at all.

"What a ANBU is doing in my house at twenty two past one in the morning? Explain, Naruto."

Naruto face-palmed again. "She was not supposed to come, but she was worried about me so she followed me."

And the woman was just before the tall man, her hands behind her back. She blinked her eyes seductively at him. Mori was looking down at her in disgust.

"You're handsome from close-up. Wanna be my boyfriend?" she randomly asked.

His cigarette dropped from his mouth.

"Get out of my house," he said dejected.

"But!" she cried.

"I won't fall for your tricks, Kunoichi!"

She twirled one her finger around his hair, and tapped another on the man's torso in a shy manner. "Please... I have no place to go..."

"No," he firmly replied.

"Pleaaaz!" she whined like a kid.

Naruto then required: "Mori, please, do me a favor, it will save us a headache for tonight."

The Yamanaka looked between the two, and made a face. He turned back to his bedroom and finally declared, "Fine. She can stay there. But..." He suddenly pointed a finger on Cockatoo's nose. "You'll do the laundry, you clean the place, and you'll pay half the bill. And I'll do the cooking." He turned his finger to Naruto. "And, you gonna sleep because kids are supposed to sleep early."

"But first, the bath!" Cockatoo's intervened. Mori cringed but just dropped the topic as he went back to sleep.

Naruto eyed Cockatoo sternly. "You really proposed to him the first two minutes you met him?"

She shrugged. "It works sometimes, but don't worry, he will finally fall for me," she chuckled evilly.

Naruto thought she was just dumb, but now, he realized she was completely crazy.

After they took a bath (and Naruto insisted many times that it was one at a time), they slept. Mori put another mattress on the ground and explained the woman if she tried a move on him this night, he would figuratively rape her mind, which kinda chilled her zeal.

Naruto hoped he would not be late for the morning.

* * *

**X**

* * *

_**You are Naruto Uzumaki, son of Kushina Uzumaki and Minato Namikaze.** _


End file.
